LONDON (AP) \u2014 Seven people, including two police officers, were killed early Saturday in a head-on collision in northeast England following a pursuit.<\/p>\n
Cleveland Police said that a Volkswagen Passat carrying five people was traveling the wrong way down the A66 highway near Middlesbrough and collided with a police vehicle on the same road going in the right direction.<\/p>\n
The seven people were pronounced dead at the scene after the crash at 3:39 a.m.<\/p>\n
The two officers were identified as Matthew Blades and Tom Clough, Cleveland Police Chief Constable Victoria Fuller said.<\/p>\n
Police were still working to formally identify other victims. The families of those already identified have been informed and were offered specialist support, police said.<\/p>\n
Cleveland Police were investigating the crash, alongside the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which is always involved when such incidents take place.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that he was \u201cdevastated\u201d to hear about the loss of life and urged \u201cpeople to avoid speculation at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON (AP) \u2014 Seven people, including two police officers, were killed early Saturday in a head-on collision in northeast England following a pursuit. Cleveland Police said that a Volkswagen Passat carrying five people was traveling the wrong way down the A66 highway near Middlesbrough and collided with a police vehicle on the same road going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":7032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"guid":"5d2e95a0-4d1e-4e95-b8dc-fb724c77a38d","source":"The Associated Press","byline":"","published":"2026-08-22 06:36:56","updated":"2026-08-22 08:30:53","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1303,1304],"tags":[],"region":[1279,1280,1320],"class_list":["post-7031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-world","region-british-columbia","region-canada","region-victoria"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":7}},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/7031\/a-head-on-collision-in-northeast-england-kills-7-people-including-2-police-officers\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"A head-on collision in northeast England kills 7 people, including 2 police officers","url":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/7031\/a-head-on-collision-in-northeast-england-kills-7-people-including-2-police-officers\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/7031\/a-head-on-collision-in-northeast-england-kills-7-people-including-2-police-officers\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/inwheels-66e1c21c74819b8addfed30d5e1c7d3ed44cc5227b0e0dc1a7c941306e4615d3.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/inwheels-66e1c21c74819b8addfed30d5e1c7d3ed44cc5227b0e0dc1a7c941306e4615d3.jpg"},"articleSection":"International","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Associated Press"}],"creator":["The Associated Press"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"iNwheels","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-08-22T13:36:56Z","datePublished":"2026-08-22T13:36:56Z","dateModified":"2026-08-22T15:45:09Z"},"rendered":"