Gardaí were instructed not to pursue a stolen BMW travelling in the wrong direction on the M9 motorway before a fatal head-on collision, as they are not trained in pursuits. The crash in Co Kildare killed five teenagers and left four people seriously injured, including a child.
Victims identified
The five teenage boys, all passengers in one vehicle, were named as Jeremy O'Brien, 18, from Carlow; Alex McCarthy, 17, from Carlow; Joey Carthy, 15, from Athy, Kildare; Jack Kennedy, 17, also from Athy; and Kamil Pustkowski, 17, from Limerick. The collision occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning between junctions 3 and 4 of the M9.
GRA statement
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said members were "all in shock" following the "horrific incident". GRA vice-president John Joe O'Connell told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that the BMW had earlier refused to stop for gardaí and that instructions were issued not to engage with the vehicle as it travelled the wrong way down the motorway.
Mr O'Connell said it would be standard practice for the command and control centre to dictate actions in a live environment, but members in cars have to make split-second decisions. He noted "numerous gangs" of young men in social media videos trying to outdo each other with chases and wrong-way driving.
No pursuit training
"Our members are not going to follow down that route – we're damned if you do and damned if you don't, that way," he said. The GRA representative from Kildare added that there is not one member of An Garda Síochána trained in pursuit, let alone dealing with cars going the wrong way.
Mr O'Connell highlighted that gardaí face internal penalties, disciplinary action and potential criminal charges when engaging in pursuits. He also mentioned that garda vehicles have been targeted by stolen cars and called for a review of sentences in such cases, describing wrong-way drivers as "playing Russian roulette with their lives and everyone else's lives".
Commissioner's warning
Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly labelled the crash as "horrific" and cautioned that in some cases vehicles are driven on the wrong side of motorways for social media likes. The previous weekend, nine individuals were injured in a similar head-on collision on the M50 in Dublin involving a wrong-way driver.
