Twelve people have died in less than a week in separate crashes in Britain and Ireland involving vehicles being driven on the wrong side of major roads, with authorities warning that dangerous driving is being encouraged by social media.Seven people, including two serving police officers, were killed early Saturday after a car travelling in the wrong direction on the A66 near Middlesbrough in northeastern England collided head-on with a marked police vehicle, according to police. The deaths take the toll from the recent UK and Irish crashes to 12.Reuters reported that the collision happened around 3:39 am near South Bank, east of Middlesbrough. Cleveland Police said all occupants of both vehicles died at the scene.Police said a Volkswagen Passat carrying five people was travelling on the wrong side of the A66 when it struck the police car, which was travelling in the correct direction. The circumstances surrounding the crash are still being investigated.The two officers killed were identified as Matthew Blades and Tom Clough, Cleveland Police Chief Constable Victoria Fuller said. Police were working to formally identify the other victims and said their families had been informed and offered specialist support.“This tragic incident will be felt across Cleveland, within our communities and throughout the entire policing family,” Fuller said.The crash followed a police pursuit of a suspicious vehicle, Reuters reported. The Independent Office for Police Conduct will review the incident, as is standard in cases involving police.The deaths came days after five teenagers were killed in Ireland when their car was travelling the wrong way on the M9 motorway west of Dublin and collided head-on with another vehicle. Four people in the second car, including a child, were seriously injured.AFP reported that the Irish crash was part of a series of recent incidents involving vehicles being driven the wrong way on motorways. Authorities have linked some of the incidents to a social media trend in which dangerous driving is recorded and shared online.After the fatal Irish crash, Ireland’s taoiseach, or prime minister, Micheal Martin said it was the latest in a series of such incidents.“There can be no tolerance for this reckless behaviour that we have seen on our roads recently. It must stop,” he said.Irish police chief Justin Kelly said a similar crash had occurred on Dublin’s M50 motorway a week earlier. He warned that “what makes this reckless behaviour even more appalling is that in some cases it is being done for social media”.The M50 crash involved a stolen vehicle carrying teenagers that was driven the wrong way, causing multiple serious injuries.Reuters reported that Irish authorities have also raised concerns about social media platforms amplifying dangerous driving. An Irish parliamentary committee has asked TikTok to explain how it removes content “that appears to glorify dangerous and illegal behaviour on our roads”.Ireland’s media regulator made a similar request on Tuesday.In another incident earlier this month, footage filmed inside a stolen car being pursued by police also emerged on social media, further fuelling concerns about videos promoting reckless driving.The recent crashes have prompted renewed scrutiny of the role of social media in encouraging dangerous behaviour on major roads, as police and authorities in Britain and Ireland investigate the circumstances behind the fatal collisions.