IOPC Probes A66 Crash That Killed 7 After Wrong-Way Passat Hit Police Car

Q: What exactly made the vehicle so suspicious that it triggered a fatal chain of events claiming seven lives on the A66?

It is not yet publicly known what specifically made the Volkswagen Passat “suspicious.” Cleveland Police and the Independent Office for Police Conduct have only said officers sighted a suspicious vehicle and a pursuit began; neither has disclosed a concrete trigger such as a reported crime, stolen status, dangerous manoeuvres before the pursuit, or intelligence linked to the car. What is established is narrower. Security footage appears to show the Passat being chased by several police vehicles on Lime Road at about 03:36 BST. About three minutes later, at roughly 03:39, the Passat was on the A66 travelling the wrong way when it collided head-on with a marked Cleveland Police vehicle, killing all seven people involved, including PCs Matthew Blades and Tom Clough. The BBC reports the police car hit in the crash was not part of the earlier pursuit, and that the chase had already been ended before the collision. Some reports cite the car being driven at very high speed in a residential area and later going the wrong way on the dual carriageway, but those details describe dangerous driving around the incident rather than explain why police initially marked it as suspicious. So, at this stage, the honest answer is that authorities have not revealed the exact reason for the suspicion. That unanswered point is likely to be central to the IOPC investigation, alongside the timeline of the pursuit, its termination, and how the car came to be travelling the wrong way on the A66.

3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Aug 22

Seven people, including two police officers, died after a Volkswagen Passat driving the wrong way on the A66 hit a marked police vehicle near Middlesbrough early Saturday.
03:36 BST security footage appears to show several police vehicles chasing a car on nearby Lime Road about three minutes before the collision.
The BBC understands the police car struck in the crash was not part of that pursuit and that the chase had already ended before impact.
Following a mandatory referral from Cleveland Police, the Independent Office for Police Conduct has opened an investigation into the circumstances of the crash.