Five teenagers were killed in a head-on collision on the M9 motorway in Co Kildare after Gardaí were told not to engage with the stolen vehicle they were travelling in, according to police representatives.
The crash happened in the early hours of Sunday, 16 August, on the M9 northbound between junctions 3 and 4. Four people from the second car, including a child, were taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Stolen BMW drove wrong way
The car carrying the teens was a stolen BMW that had earlier failed to stop for Gardaí and drove the wrong way down the M9, said John Joe O’Connell, vice-president of the Garda Representative Association (GRA). He said the vehicle was attempting to evade gardaí when the head-on collision occurred with a family car heading to Dublin Airport for a holiday.
The Irish Mirror reported that the car drove on the wrong side of the motorway twice in a matter of minutes, and the occupants all wore balaclavas or masks. Before the crash, Gardaí had been alerted to a group of teenagers attempting to break into cars and homes in a nearby town.
‘All in shock’
In a statement on Monday, 17 August, the GRA said its members were “all in shock” after the “horrific incident”. Mr O’Connell said it was his understanding that an instruction was given not to engage with the vehicle as it travelled the wrong way down the M9. Asked if this was standard procedure, he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland: “It would be standard practice, and the command and control centre would be dictating what happens in a live environment – but the members in the cars have to make a split-second decision.”
Mr O’Connell said there were “numerous gangs” of boys and young men “trying to outdo each other” in social media videos depicting interactions with Gardaí, pursuits and wrong-way driving. “Our members are not going to follow down that route – we’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, that way.”
Pursuit training and sanctions
The GRA did not “know what the exact answer is” to address the problem, but Mr O’Connell added: “There’s not one member of An Garda Síochána trained in pursuit – never mind in dealing with cars going down the wrong way.” Gardaí also face internal sanctions, discipline and possible criminal offences when they decide to engage in pursuits, and garda cars have been rammed by stolen vehicles.
Mr O’Connell said there was a need to “look at the sentences” when these cases come before the courts, criticising those partaking in wrong-way driving as “playing Russian roulette with their lives and everyone else’s lives”. He urged parents to talk to their sons about the potential consequences if they get into a stolen car “for the craic and the clicks”.
Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly described the head-on collision as “horrific” and warned that “in some cases” vehicles are being driven on the wrong side of motorways for social media likes. The previous weekend, nine people were injured in a head-on collision on the M50 in Dublin with a car travelling in the wrong direction.
