Police officer killed in A66 crash was football coach excited to teach own son

Pc Matthew Blades, 37, and Pc Tom Clough, 38, were killed in the crash along with five members of the public.

One of two police officers killed in a crash that also took the lives of five members of the public was a football coach looking forward to teaching his son, his club has said.

Pc Matthew Blades, 37, and Pc Tom Clough, 38, were killed when a Volkswagen Passat that was travelling the wrong way down the A66 dual carriageway near Middlesbrough collided with their marked armed response vehicle that was going in the right 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 incident “will have a big impact on them”.

Meanwhile 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 investigating the lead-up to the crash at 3.39am on Saturday in South Bank, Middlesborough, after a mandatory referral from Cleveland Police.

Officers had spotted a suspicious vehicle and a pursuit began before the car travelled onto the A66 and collided with a police car, the watchdog 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: “If I bump into an ex-Met officer then within within 30 seconds we’ll know someone together, we’ll have a common common link.

“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, a “significant policing career” is usually required to be an armed response officer, as Pc Blades and Pc Clough were, 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.

“Most of the response teams in Cleveland will know at least one, if not both, of those officers”, he said.

He believes the impact of their colleagues’ deaths will be “hitting those officers today”, telling PA: “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”.

“It won’t stop officers going out, it won’t stop officers trying to stop vehicles like pursuits, trying to pull vehicles to a stop, tactical contact, tactical pursuit and containment, T-Pac training – all that will still carry on across the country, it probably went on all day yesterday and will be going all day today,” he said.

He added: “That’s their responsibility that they have and they understand that.”

The families of the five people who were travelling in the Volkswagen are being supported by officers, Cleveland Police said on Saturday, although they have not yet been named by the force.

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.”

The Cleveland police and crime commissioner, 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.”

The tragedy prompted other police forces to send their condolences, including the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Sussex Police and the Met.

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, Middlesbrough, minutes before the crash, shows a car being driven at speed down a residential road and being followed by police cars.