{"id":597027,"date":"2026-08-18T12:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T12:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/597027\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T12:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T12:42:09","slug":"m9-crash-latest-car-involved-in-fatal-incident-was-bought-rather-than-stolen-gardai-believe-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/597027\/","title":{"rendered":"M9 crash latest: Car involved in fatal incident was bought rather than stolen, garda\u00ed believe \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organisations representing Garda<\/a> members have called on the Government<\/a> to provide more resources to help tackle dangerous driving, including pursuit training, following the M9 motorway crash<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Five teenage boys, who were travelling in a BMW in the wrong direction on the M9 motorway near Moone, Co Kildare<\/a>, were killed in the early hours of Sunday morning when their car collided head-on with a Hyundai. <\/p>\n

Three women and a child in the other car, who were on their way to Dublin Airport, remain in hospital with serious injuries. <\/p>\n

The BMW was not registered to any of the teenagers who were killed or any of their family members. Because of that, garda\u00ed initially suspected it had been stolen. However, garda\u00ed now believe it changed hands for a small sum of money earlier this month without the registration details for the vehicle being updated.<\/p>\n

Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> said on Monday garda\u00ed<\/a> will be given \u201cwhatever resources\u201d are required, including pursuit training. <\/p>\n

He said efforts were under way to prepare legislation to strengthen protections for garda\u00ed involved in pursuits by the Department of Transport<\/a>, noting that the Garda Commissioner had confirmed training would be introduced this year. <\/p>\n

However, the deputy general secretary of the AGSI, Kevin Bolger, told RT\u00c9 Radio\u2019s Morning Ireland tangible actions were not being seen despite promises about issues such as pursuit training. <\/p>\n

Assurances had been given earlier this year about pursuit training, and yet \u201chere we are in the midst of another tragedy where the promises are still coming, we\u2019re not seeing any tangible actions,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be an expedited response to this because things aren\u2019t getting better and this was flagged at the time that these robust responses needed to come quick and because we have members in control rooms, particularly we have sergeants and inspectors in control rooms who are in control of all these vehicles and they have to make decisions while pursuits are ongoing which it goes against every grain of their being as a police person to stand down members from a pursuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first step should be to properly resource existing roads policing units that have been depleted and under-resourced, he said. \u201cResource them, fully train them, equip and protect them, they will start from the ground up of making the road safer because they will engage strongly on a permanent basis with all road users okay and try to change behaviours.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Garda\u00ed to receive pursuit training for the first time in aftermath of M9 crashOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"PortraitsFive males were in a BMW on M9 in Co Kildare when car hit a Hyundai carrying three sisters and a boy <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Declan Higgins, the president of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), warned recent Garda recruitment campaigns are \u201cnot coming fast enough\u201d to tackle the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have enough garda\u00ed on the ground. When we see road deaths rising at the rate they have been over the last couple of years, we see horrific instances like this,\u201d he told Newstalk Breakfast with Anton Savage in response to a question about the M9 crash. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t the first time. I mean, if people remember back to 2021, on the M7, there was a similar incident where three young men were killed. And so this has been going on quite a long while these kind of horrific instances.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time there had been a decrease in Garda Traffic Corps numbers, he added. The lack of response was worrying, he said. Not only were garda numbers down, but equipment and resources were also down.<\/p>\n

The prosecution of garda\u00ed for their actions during the pursuit of suspects has \u201ca huge morale impact\u201d on members of the force, said Higgins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s 10 members of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, I believe, at the moment before the courts facing prosecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the lack of training for those members and the lack of support and the lack of backing from both Government and from Garda management for these garda\u00ed out doing their job is of serious concern,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey do not feel the confidence any more. They\u2019re not being properly supported, they\u2019re not being properly protected to do their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il TD for Dublin Midwest, Shane Moynihan, who is deputy chair of the Oireachtas Transport Committee and party spokesman on transport, speaking on Newstalk, acknowledged the need to increase garda visibility on roads.<\/p>\n

Pursuit training was another issue he supported. Every garda was now required to undertake roads policing as part of their general work, he said.<\/p>\n

Moynihan said there was another question around values and why it was acceptable for young men and individuals to believe such behaviour was acceptable. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat requires a conversation for us as a society, both in terms of political discussion, but also in terms of how we engage with the likes of social media companies about why this sort of behaviour has been glorified in some instances, why it\u2019s been lionised and why it\u2019s been kind of celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FiveFive teenage boys, who were travelling in a BMW in the wrong direction on the M9 motorway near Moone, Co Kildare, were killed in the crash. Photograph: Niall Carson\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

David Staunton, a barrister specialising in road traffic legislation, has said there are \u201ccertain legislative tweaks\u201d that could be made that would allow the garda\u00ed to have certain immunities in certain situations such as \u201cthe legitimate pursuit\u201d of people suspected of crimes.<\/p>\n

He spoke on RT\u00c9 Radio\u2019s Today show with regard to a promise by the Minister for Justice that legislation was being prepared to strengthen garda protections \u201cwhen it comes to pursuit\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, there are certain legislative tweaks that could be made which does allow for the garda\u00ed to have certain immunities in certain situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also at the moment, unfortunately, which is something I think does need to be looked at, garda\u00ed can be prosecuted for dangerous driving in certain instances where they are pursuing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staunton added that one thing that could be considered would be amending the legislation concerning dangerous driving.<\/p>\n

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 garda\u00ed around the Carlow-Kildare region.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed in a patrol car had earlier requested the vehicle to stop at about 2am in Athy, but the driver sped off.<\/p>\n

It is understood garda\u00ed were not pursuing the BMW at the time of the crash. Garda\u00ed believe it was driven on to the wrong side of the M9 because the driver was trying to evade garda\u00ed, and probably knew Garda patrol cars would not be allowed to pursue them if driving against traffic.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Five teenagers killed in M9 wrong-way crash are named locallyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Organisations representing Garda members have called on the Government to provide more resources to help tackle dangerous driving,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,1523,61,60,3770,43],"class_list":["post-597027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-government","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kildare","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}