Hero Cops K.i.l.l.e.d in Split-Second Horror: Five TikTok Joyriders Drive Wrong Way on Teesside Dual Carriageway — Crash Hits Just 10 Seconds After Chase Ends
In the quiet early hours of Saturday, 22 August 2026, a catastrophic head-on collision on the A66 in South Bank, near Middlesbrough, claimed seven lives and left a community in mourning. Two Cleveland Police officers — PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38 — died when a Volkswagen Passat travelling in the wrong direction smashed into their marked armed response vehicle. All five occupants of the Passat, young men aged between 16 and 23, also perished at the scene.
The sequence of events unfolded with tragic speed. Officers had earlier identified a suspicious vehicle believed to be using cloned registration plates after it triggered an automatic number plate recognition camera. A pursuit lasting just under seven minutes followed through local streets. Ring doorbell footage captured the Passat speeding through residential areas around 3:36 a.m. When the vehicle entered the A66 against the flow of traffic, the pursuing officers aborted the chase and continued on the correct side of the dual carriageway.
PC Blades and PC Clough were not part of that pursuit. They had been deployed to the area to assist in locating the vehicle. Travelling correctly on the A66, their car was struck approximately ten seconds after the chase ended, at around 3:39 a.m. The impact was catastrophic. Every person in both vehicles was pronounced dead at the scene.
The five young men in the Passat were later named as Michael Robert Cahill, 23; Theo Rae, 17; Cole Robert Worthy, 16 or 17; Jacob Matusiak, 23; and Makai Saddington, 18. Social media activity linked to some of them in the months beforehand included videos of high-speed driving, apparent police pursuits, and reckless manoeuvres through residential areas and green spaces — content often associated with the online “joyriding” trend that prioritises viral clips over safety.
Tributes painted a stark contrast between the officers’ lives of service and the circumstances of their deaths. PC Blades was remembered as a devoted husband and father of two young boys. He had recently begun coaching an under-sevens football team so he could share the sport with his own son. Colleagues and family described him as selfless and committed to protecting the public. PC Clough, a former soldier who had served in Iraq and later with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary before joining Cleveland Police, was recalled as a man with a sharp sense of humour who always stepped forward to help. His family called him their hero who remained on public duty throughout his life.
Chief Constable Victoria Fuller spoke of the officers as brave public servants who did not return home at the end of their shift. Flags at force headquarters flew at half-mast. Floral tributes and balloons appeared near the crash site as residents and colleagues paid respects. The Independent Office for Police Conduct launched an investigation into the circumstances, as is standard following such incidents involving police vehicles.
The tragedy has reignited discussion about the dangers of reckless driving for social media content. High-speed wrong-way driving on a major dual carriageway leaves almost no margin for error. In this case, the decision to enter the A66 against traffic, combined with the short interval after the pursuit was called off, produced irreversible consequences for seven families.
Both officers left behind partners, children, and colleagues who must now navigate profound loss. The five young men also leave grieving relatives. The investigation continues, but the human cost is already clear: two officers who dedicated their lives to public safety, and five young lives cut short on a stretch of road that should have been ordinary in the early morning darkness.
