A man has been charged with dangerous driving after seven officers were injured in a crash involving five police vehicles and a car which was being pursued on Tyneside. Mazyar Azarbonyad, 20, of Sylvia Terrace, Durham, will appear at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court on Saturday over the collision on the northbound A1 on April 9.
The horror crash happened near the Derwent Haugh Road junction, on the borders of Gateshead and Newcastle, at 2.27am on April 9. The collision happened on the carriageway below the roundabout where gunman Raoul Moat shot Pc David Rathband, leaving him blind, in 2010.
Azarbonyad was arrested at the scene of the collision. The Northumbria force said seven officers were taken to hospital with what it described as non-life threatening injuries. They have all since been discharged.
Police say officers attempted to stop a dark grey BMW M Sport in the Whickham area of Gateshead at about 2am due to concerns over the way it was being driven”, before it attempted to speed off.
Northumbria Police said he has been charged with dangerous driving, two counts of failing to stop a motor vehicle when required by a constable, two counts of no insurance use, and two counts of driving otherwise than in accordance with licence.
The force said a woman in her 20s was released with no further action to be taken in relation to her arrest on suspicion of aiding and abetting dangerous driving.
She was, however, released on police bail for suspected drug possession offences, pending further inquiries. A spokesman said the two occupants of a BMW, which was being pursued at the time, were uninjured.
A police spokesman said officers attempted to stop a dark grey BMW M Sport in the Whickham area of Gateshead at about 2am, because of concerns about the way it was being driven. The car drove off and was later seen in the Swalwell area.
He said specialist officers from the roads policing unit got behind the car at 2.25am and a pursuit was authorised.
Images from the scene showed four marked police vehicles badly damaged, a car on its side, and debris scattered across the carriageway. One of the police vehicles had its roof torn off.
At the time, a North East Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We received a call at 2.29am on Wednesday April 9 to reports of a road traffic collision on the A1 northbound near Denton, Newcastle.
“We dispatched five ambulance crews, a specialist paramedic, a duty officer, two crews from our hazardous area response team and requested support from our colleagues at the Great North Air Ambulance Service who attended by road. Five patients were transported to hospital for further treatment.”
Long after the crash, blue lights continued to flash on an unmarked police car which was crushed against the central reservation barrier. A police detection dog was sent in to a dark coloured BMW which was wedged between the marked police cars.
The process of removing the damaged vehicles and lifting them on to low loaders was under way by lunchtime.
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