Makai Saddington, an 18-year-old who died in the A66 crash that killed seven people, was awaiting trial on charges of racially abusing and assaulting police officers, court records show.
The collision on the A66 in South Bank, Teesside, on Saturday morning claimed the lives of two police officers, PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough. They died when a Volkswagen Passat, driven the wrong way along a dual carriageway, hit their police vehicle. The occupants of the Passat – Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Saddington, and 23-year-olds Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak – also died.
Charges and court appearance
Court records indicate that Saddington was accused of assaulting a police officer and of causing racially aggravated alarm or distress to another in Middlesbrough on June 9. He reportedly appeared before Teesside Magistrates' Court on July 17, with his case adjourned to a later date.
It has also been reported that Saddington was involved in filming dangerous driving in TikTok videos before the fatal crash. Now TikTok and other social media firms have been asked to remove wrong-way driving videos from their platforms.
Government response to dangerous driving content
Defence minister Luke Pollard said social media platforms should act to remove posts of that nature. Asked about videos being shared on TikTok, Snapchat and other forums, he told BBC Radio 5 Live: “We’ve communicated to those social media platforms that have been hosting content that celebrates this type of dangerous behaviour on our roads to take down that content.
“I think we all need to give the police time, but there’s also things we can be doing in the meantime to make sure that the internet is a safer place for everyone, that doesn’t celebrate and load views and therefore financial incentives on people to generate such awful content.” He added: “I want to see social media companies step up.
“It’s one of the reasons they’ve argued against some of the regulations, saying they can police themselves. Well this is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate it. Remove the content that celebrates dangerous behaviour on our roads.
“While that content is online, the Government will be using the powers in the Online Safety Act to compel the platforms to take it down. But if the social media platforms were to regulate themselves and remove it in the first place, not allow their algorithm to share this type of content, because they know exactly what type of content that algorithm is designed to share, then I think we’d be in a better place.”
Police commissioner urges focus on road safety
Cleveland police and crime commissioner Matt Storey acknowledged the reports about the TikTok videos, but urged people to avoid speculation. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Without being able to say whether that was anything like involved in this case, it’s absolutely idiotic for anybody to be doing anything other than being completely 100% focused on the road when they’re behind the wheel of a vehicle.
“And for somebody to be filming themselves or doing anything like that is absolutely ridiculous, and of course nobody should be doing that. And it is a worrying situation if that’s becoming more prevalent because it is incredibly dangerous.”
The Independent Office for Police Conduct says Cleveland Police launched a chase after receiving intelligence relating to “numerous incidents” linked to a Passat, which activated an ANPR camera and is believed to have been using cloned plates. PC Blades and PC Clough were not involved in the original pursuit, but had been called to the area to assist with the search for the Passat.
The Passat was spotted and an armed response vehicle pursued for just under seven minutes before the car drove on to the A66 in South Bank against the flow of traffic. Police aborted the chase and continued to travel on the correct side of the carriageway. The Passat crashed into PC Blades and PC Clough’s vehicle around 10 seconds after the chase ended.
