Inquests have opened into the deaths of two Cleveland Police officers, PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough, who were killed in a crash on the A66. The officers, aged 37 and 38 respectively, died on Saturday when their police vehicle was struck by a Volkswagen Passat travelling against the flow of traffic on the dual carriageway near Middlesbrough.
Area Coroner for Teesside and Hartlepool Paul Appleton opened the inquests at Teesside Coroner's Court. He stated that both officers died in a fatal road traffic collision on the A66 between Normanby Road and Church Lane in Eston.
The inquest heard that PC Blades' provisional cause of death was head and neck injuries, while PC Clough's provisional cause of death was neck injuries. The officers were reportedly not directly involved in an "aborted" police pursuit that preceded the collision.
Further inquests into the deaths of the five young men in the Passat are anticipated to open at a later date. Reports from full post-mortem examinations, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), and a police collision report are awaited.