Joyriders in Ireland travelled the wrong way along the M50 and N3 in the early hours of Thursday before crashing, the Irish Mirror reports. The incident occurred at around 3.30am, just days after five teenagers lost their lives in a head-on collision when they drove the wrong way up the M9.
Incident Details
It is understood that officers first spotted the vehicle, believed to have been stolen earlier that evening, on St Margaret's Road in Ballymun. The vehicle failed to stop and is understood to have travelled the wrong way up the M50 before leaving the motorway and continuing in the wrong direction on the N3.
Officers were subsequently stood down. The vehicle did not collide with any other cars and was later discovered having been crashed and abandoned in Ashtown.
Garda Investigation
A Garda spokesman confirmed that a probe had been launched "following an incident of dangerous driving." They said: "Gardaí on patrol responded to an incident of dangerous driving on St. Margaret's Road, Ballymun, Dublin 11 on Thursday 20th August 2026 at approximately 3:30am. The driver of the vehicle failed to stop for Gardaí. The suspect vehicle did not collide with any other vehicle. The suspect vehicle was subsequently recovered by Gardaí. Investigations are ongoing."
Previous Fatal Crash
Last Sunday, five teenagers lost their lives when their vehicle collided with another car carrying three women and a young boy. The victims have been named as Jeremy O'Brien, 18, and Alex McCarthy, 17, from Carlow; Jack Kennedy, 17, and Joey Carthy, 15, from Athy in Kildare, and Kamil Pustkowski, 17, from Limerick.
The five youngsters perished when their BMW was involved in a head-on collision on the motorway in Kildare at approximately 3am on Sunday. The vehicle was travelling at speed on the wrong side of the road before smashing head-on into a Hyundai carrying four innocent members of the Kinsella family from Carlow, who were en route to Dublin Airport. A seven-year-old boy, along with sisters Niamh and Alma Kinsella and Ella Hendricken, all sustained serious injuries in the crash.
