Twelve people have been killed in less than a week in separate wrong-way driving crashes in England and Ireland, intensifying concerns over a dangerous trend in which motorists deliberately drive against traffic and, in some cases, record the stunts for social media.
Seven people, including two police officers, died early Saturday when a Volkswagen Passat traveling the wrong way on the A66 near South Bank in Middlesbrough, northeastern England, collided head-on with a marked Cleveland Police vehicle.
The crash happened at about 3:39 a.m. local time after officers had been pursuing a suspicious vehicle. The Passat, traveling against the flow of traffic, struck the police car, killing the two officers inside and five people in the Volkswagen.
All seven victims died at the scene.
Emergency crews sent 14 ambulance resources, a specialist paramedic team, a hazardous area response team and a doctor from the Great North Air Ambulance Service to the crash site.
