Five teenagers who died in a wrong-way motorway crash in Ireland have been named and pictured. The boys, believed to be aged between 15 and 18, were travelling against traffic on the M9 in Co Kildare when they collided with a family heading to Dublin Airport.
Victims identified
The deceased are Kamil Pustkowski, Joey Carthy, Alex McCarthy, Jack Kennedy and Jeremy O’Brien. They were in a car driving the wrong way on the motorway, which crashed into a Hyundai carrying a family on their way to the airport for a holiday.
Three women and a seven-year-old child in the other vehicle were injured. The woman in her 20s is being treated for severe injuries at St Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny, while the two women in their 30s are receiving care at Tallaght University Hospital in south Co Dublin.
Link to 'lucky dip' gang
The group has been linked to a network of teenage joyriders known as the 'lucky dip' gang, first identified by Gardaí last year. The name comes from their habit of targeting areas at random to steal cars. The gang is thought to have around 60 members, some as young as 14, and has been linked to some 300 incidents in the first three months of this year.
Operating mainly at night, the group films dangerous stunts for TikTok and Instagram, following a trend of reckless social media challenges. Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said the incident was made more reckless because it was done 'for social media likes'.
Police warning
John Joe O’Connell, vice-president of the Garda Representative Association, said teenagers were trying to outdo each other with videos of dangerous acts like wrong-way driving. He warned that those seeking social media engagement are 'playing Russian roulette with their lives and everyone else’s lives'.
He added that police were not equipped to handle such high-risk incidents, including motorists deliberately driving contraflow, following reports that officers were advised not to pursue the stolen BMW. He said: 'There’s not one member of An Garda Síochána trained in pursuit – never mind in dealing with cars going down the wrong way.'
A cousin of Joey Carthy and Alex McCarthy wrote on social media: 'Rest in peace my two cousins Alex and Joey. May you get the best bed in heaven, watch over your mother and father and brothers and sisters at this hard time.'
