A 16-year-old boy was among seven males who were killed when a car travelling the wrong way along a dual carriageway near Middlesbrough crashed into a police vehicle.
Cole Robert Worthy, 16, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and 23-year-olds Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak died when their Volkswagen Passat collided with a marked armed response vehicle on the A66 in Teesside early on Saturday.
Pc Matthew Blades, 37, and Pc Tom Clough, 38, of Cleveland Police were also killed in the collision and had been driving in the correct direction.
Husband and father-of-two Pc Blades had recently become a Seaton Carew FC coach and was preparing for his first turn teaching its under-sevens Seahawks squad.
“He was looking forward to being part of the team and, most importantly, to coaching his own son, who is going to be playing for the Seahawks this season,” the club said on social media.
“Matty and his oldest son are much-loved members of our club and our U10 Lions football family.”
Ex-frontline responder Graham Wettone, who served in the Metropolitan Police for more than three decades, said Cleveland Police staff “will literally know most people” in the force and the effect of the crash will be “massive”.
Cleveland police and crime commissioner Matt Storey also described the force as a “really tight-knit family” and said the deaths “will have a big impact on them”.
Anna Turley, MP for the Redcar constituency where the accident happened, said the “whole community is reeling here today” on Sunday morning.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating the lead-up to the crash at 3.39am on Saturday in South Bank, Middlesbrough, after a mandatory referral from Cleveland Police. The watchdog is expected to provide an update on Sunday afternoon.
Officers had spotted a suspicious vehicle and began a pursuit began before the car travelled onto the A66 and collided with the police car, the IOPC said.
It is understood the police vehicle Pc Blades and Pc Clough were travelling in was not part of the pursuit.
Ex-Met officer Mr Wettone told the Press Association that colleagues “all know each other” in the smaller UK forces he has worked with.
He said: “In forces like Cleveland, they will literally know most people.”
Cleveland Police had a workforce of 2,647 in March 2024, including police officers, police community support officers, special constables, police staff and police staff volunteers, according to a previous review.
The Met had around 30,000 officers when Mr Wettone served there, he said.
Moreover, armed response officers, like Pc Blades and Pc Clough, have usually already had a “significant policing career”, he added.
He told PA: “They’ve worked their way through police response teams, police community teams, and in such a small force, they will be very, very well known amongst the force itself, so it has a massive impact.”
The armed response unit will also be small with the same crews turning up to certain calls, he added.
He believes the impact of their colleagues’ deaths will be “hitting those officers today”, adding: “It’s only when we come away from the police building and… take our uniform off, then we start thinking about what’s happened on our shift.
“It’s not until afterwards when you get home, often, that you think about what you’ve dealt with during your shift.”
The ex-sergeant added that the incident “will have a huge impact on policing across the whole country” but will not prevent officers “going out” or “trying to stop vehicles”.
Tactical pursuits “probably went on all day yesterday and will be going all day today” across the country, he said.
In a statement to reporters on Saturday afternoon, Cleveland Police Chief Constable Victoria Fuller said: “These were brave officers protecting our communities and serving our residents who didn’t return home to their families at the end of their shift.”
Cleveland police and crime commissioner Mr Storey, who represents areas including Hartlepool, Redcar, Liverpool and Stockton, told Sky News: “It’s my home, it’s where I’m from, and everybody knows everybody else.
“It is a small place, and the force is a really tight-knit family, really, and I think it will have a big impact on them.”
Mr Storey also warned against social media speculation, telling the outlet: “The IOPC will do their work, the force will do their work, and that will give an official view of what’s happened.
“Social media can be quite dangerous when rumours get spread around, and we need to make sure that the information is correct.”
Meanwhile MP Ms Turley paid condolences to the deceased and said the “whole community is reeling here today” on Sunday morning.
Cleveland Police is a “close-knit” force and a “police family”, she added.
“I know all of them are so professional they’ll be back on with their duties again today.”
Cleveland Police Federation chairwoman Lauren Somerville said: “Words cannot describe the pain the Cleveland Police family are feeling today.
“Our colleagues who should have been going home to their loved ones at the end of their shifts are not. And that is just unfathomable.”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was “devastated” to hear about the crash, while Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said her thoughts were with all those affected.
Witness Neil Hutchinson told the Mail on Sunday: “There were police cars tearing down the street at 3.30am with lights flashing and their sirens going, it woke me up.”
Ring doorbell footage published by several websites, which appears to have been taken on Lime Road, minutes before the crash, shows a car being driven at speed down a residential road and being followed by police cars.
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