Gardaí to receive pursuit training for the first time in aftermath of M9 crash

Gardaí will be given “whatever resources” are required to deal with dangerous driving, including pursuit training, following the M9 motorway crash. Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said efforts are under way to prepare legislation to strengthen protections for gardaí involved in pursuits by the Department of Transport, he said, noting that the Garda Commissioner confirmed training would be introduced this year.Five teenage boys, who were travelling in a stolen BMW in the wrong direction on the M9 motorway near Moone, Co Kildare, were killed in the early hours of Sunday morning when their car collided head-on with another car.Family and friends have posted messages naming them as Kamil Pustkowski (17) from Limerick; Jack Kennedy, also 17, from Athy, Co Kildare; Jeremy O’Brien (18), from Carlow; Joe “Joey” Carthy (15), from Athy, and Alex McCarthy (17), from Carlow.READ MOREThe teens, some of whom were related, have not been officially identified by the Garda, but their families have been notified.In the second car, sisters Alma and Niamh Kinsella, aged in their 30s, were in the front seats and their younger sister Ella Hendricken, in her 20s, was a rear-seat passenger alongside her nephew. The boy was also seriously injured in the incident.It is understood that Alma and Niamh Kinsella remain in a serious condition in Tallaght University Hospital. Their younger sister is being treated for serious injuries in St Vincent’s University Hospital after being transferred there from St Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny.The car they were travelling in, a Hyundai, was driving in the correct direction on the motorway. They were making their way to Dublin Airport to fly to Britain for a family wedding.“It is a terrible, sad event,” said Fr Tom Little, of Askea parish in Carlow. Little, who has been in touch with the family of those who were injured, said they were “bereft with sadness”. He has also been in touch with some relatives of the deceased teenagers, saying it was “a terrible day for them too”.Five males were in a BMW on M9 in Co Kildare when car hit a Hyundai carrying three sisters and a boy The damage to the stolen BMW was so significant that emergency responders were unable to access the remains of the dead for hours.Gardaí investigating the incident initially believed four people had died, until the remains of a fifth victim were found when the wreckage of their car was moved.The teenagers in the BMW were wearing balaclavas, or were otherwise masked, when they died on the M9. The deceased were aligned to a large group known to gardaí around the Carlow-Kildare region.Gardaí in a patrol car had earlier requested the vehicle to stop at about 2am in Athy, but the driver sped off.It is understood gardaí were not pursuing the BMW at the time of the crash. Gardaí believe it was driven on to the wrong side of the M9 because the driver was trying to evade gardaí, and likely knew Garda patrol cars would not be allowed to pursue them if driving against traffic.John Joe O’Connell, vice-president of the Garda Representative Association, said “different levels of driver training” are available to gardaí, but “not one of our members is trained in pursuit training”.O’Connell said that, if gardaí do engage in a pursuit, they fear they will face internal sanctions or “finding themselves before the courts with criminal offences”.Many gardaí, it is understood, are on the first level of the force’s competency-based driving programme, which does not permit them to activate blue lights or sirens.O’Callaghan said there should be consideration for a separate offence in respect of individuals who make a deliberate decision to drive their vehicles in the wrong direction on a motorway. “This is using a vehicle as a weapon,” he said. “It is a lethal form of behaviour that can result in deaths and serious injuries, as we witnessed on the M9.” O’Callaghan also said social media companies have a big responsibility to not allow posts that “glorify criminal behaviour” on their platforms.Videos of stolen cars being driven dangerously on Irish roads are posted to social media almost on a daily basis, gardaí have observed.The social media accounts of some of the teens contained footage of car thefts and attempts to evade Garda cars in high-speed chases.Videos of young men stealing cars across the Greater Dublin Area have been consistently posted to social media for several years but have been ramping up in recent months, gardaí believe.TikTok said it has removed all of the flagged content and banned accounts that violate its policies against criminal behaviour.It also said it removes content that glorifies violence or promotes crime that could harm others, while limiting the spread of material that encourages unsafe behaviour, including risky driving.Meta, which operates Instagram and Facebook, has policies to restrict users under 18 from seeing imagery depicting real-life dangerous driving likely to cause injury, as well as prohibition of content promoting criminal or harmful activities such as high-risk viral challenges. Snap Inc has also been contacted for comment.