THE GARDA REPRESENTATIVE Association has called for “proper training” after a collision involving a car driving in the wrong direction which killed five people.

The fatal two-vehicle collision happened in the early hours of Sunday morning at Junction 3 of the M9 northbound at Moone, Co Kildare.

Five teenage boys in the vehicle that was driving the wrong way were killed.

It is understood that at least one person was ejected from the car and found some distance from the crash site.

Four people in the other car, a Hyundai, including a 7-year-old boy, were taken to hospital and are in conditions ranging from serious to critical.

It is understood that the second car was on its way to Dublin Airport.

John Joe O’Connell, vice president of the GRA, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the vehicle which was driving in the wrong direction was stolen, and that it drove the wrong way down in an attempt to evade gardaí.

O’Connell said the vehicle had failed to stop for gardaí earlier in the night and that it is standard practice for garda members to stand down a pursuit when a vehicle drives the wrong way.

“There are different levels of driver training available to gardaí,” said O’Connell, “but not one of our members are pursuit trained.

“We’re looking for a proper training framework so our members can deal with non-compliant stops, we’ve nobody trained in a non-compliant stop.”

While O’Connell said there are a “huge” number of garda drivers trained in CPD1 – the lowest level of driver training – he added that they “cannot, as per the policy of that driver training, activate blue lights and sirens”.

O’Connell said gardaí have been dealing with incidents involving cars driving in the wrong direction in an attempt to evade gardaí since around 2021.

He added that “this isn’t news to us” and that it is “something we’ve been dealing with since 2021”.

“There’s been copycat incidents since then of cars trying to evade gardaí going the wrong way down motorways and dual carriageways,” said O’Connell.

“From our perspective, on how do we deal with this, I don’t know what the exact answer is, but there’s not one garda member trained in pursuit, never mind in dealing with cars going down the wrong way.”

He added: “And when our members do try and intercept these vehicles committing criminal offences and dangerous driving, there are internal sanctions, discipline, and even possibly our members find themselves before the courts with criminal offences.”

He noted that there was a garda ramming incident in Dublin over the weekend, and a group of eight men were in a vehicle involved head-on collision on the M50 the weekend previous.

O’Connell also referenced the “Lucky Dip gang”, which The Journal has reported on.

“We have numerous gangs of young teenage boys and young men trying to out do each other and put up social media videos of their interactions with gardaí, engaging in a pursuit and then heading the wrong way down a dual carriageway or a motorway.

“These kids are out playing Russian roulette with their lives and everyone else’s lives.

“I seriously hope that anyone who’s heard of what happened over the weekend, that they would sit down with their teenage sons and speak to them about the realities of what happens if you want to get behind the wheel of a stolen car.”

O’Connell’s remarks come as Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly acknowledged that gardaí are being put in a “really challenging situation” in responding to stolen cars being driven the wrong way against oncoming traffic. 

“What makes this reckless behaviour even more appalling is that in some cases it is being done for social media likes regardless of the potentially devastating impact it might have on innocent people and themselves,” Kelly said yesterday.

Meanwhile, Seán Canney, minister of state at the Department of Transport, said the government is “prepared to bring in additional measures to protect gardaí and to help gardaí in pursuit of the laws”.

He told Morning Ireland that the issue has been discussed in recent weeks with both the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan.

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“I’m awaiting the gardaí to come back with what supports they need or what legislation they need me to put in place,” said Canney.

He also criticised dangerous driving being carried out for “social media”.

“Anybody who is taking a risk like that, just to get a social media hit, is actually putting their own lives, that of their fellow passengers and that of everybody else on the road in jeopardy.”

‘Bewildered by the terrible tragedy’

Parish priest in Athy and Moone, Fr Seamus McEntee, said it’s not thought that any of the deceased or injured were from the local area.

McEntee said he spoke to two priests in the diocese and that the “first they heard about it was people talking at Mass about what had happened”.

“All we’re doing is just being available, offering prayers at all the Masses for those who’ve died, their families, and especially those who have been injured and are in hospital at the moment.

“And we’re praying, of course, for the first responders, because it’s a tragedy coming upon a horrific scene.”

He added that the local community is “mesmerised and bewildered by the terrible tragedy”.

“Yesterday morning, they woke up to read it in the news, then over the day, and even over this morning, the pieces of the jigsaw are coming together.”

McEntee added that he travelled on the same road on Saturday night.

“We never know who we’re going to meet on the road, and it’s so unfortunate for that family to encounter that incident and what happened to them.”

It’s understood that the people travelling in the second car involved in the collision were on their way to the airport and McEntee said he will be especially thinking of them when he goes to the airport himself tomorrow.

“It’ll be poignant in my mind when I go there, that there’s people who had packed and were on their way.”