{"id":642922,"date":"2026-08-18T04:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T04:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/642922\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T04:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T04:01:08","slug":"m9-crash-minister-for-justice-condemns-outrageously-dangerous-criminal-behaviour-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/642922\/","title":{"rendered":"M9 crash: Minister for Justice condemns \u2018outrageously dangerous criminal behaviour\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a> would be given \u201cwhatever resources\u201d were required to deal with dangerous driving, including pursuit training, the Minister for Justice said. <\/p>\n

Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> was speaking on Monday after five teenagers were killed<\/a> when the stolen BMW car they were travelling in on the wrong side of the M9 in Co Kildare<\/a> collided with another car early on Sunday. The four people<\/a> travelling in the second vehicle were seriously injured. <\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday, we saw outrageously dangerous criminal behaviour by five teenagers that resulted in them losing their own lives and also inflicting serious injuries on a family that were lawfully using the M9,\u201d O\u2019Callaghan told reporters in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to condemn in the strongest possible terms that reckless criminal behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also want to emphasise that anyone who makes a decision to drive a vehicle deliberately the wrong way down a motorway is engaged in lethally dangerous behaviour and it must stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Five teenagers killed in M9 wrong-way crash are named locally<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Minister said he had spoken to Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly<\/a> and told him that garda\u00ed \u201cwill have whatever resources they require from Government in order to respond to this threat to public safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Miche\u00e1l Martin said there should be \u201cno tolerance\u201d for people who drive recklessly on the wrong side of a motorway. <\/p>\n

In a statement, the Taoiseach said this was the \u201csecond appalling crash we\u2019ve seen on our roads in a matter of days\u201d \u2013 referring to an August 9th incident<\/a> on the M50 that left nine people requiring hospital treatment after a car with eight teenagers inside was driven on the wrong side of the Dublin motorway. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Garda Commissioner has said, it is an irresponsible and dangerous act, and it is shocking that in some cases it is being done for likes on social media,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Martin said his thoughts and prayers were with the family who had been injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lives of five teenagers have also been lost as a result. Every death on our roads brings untold grief to families and communities. There can be no tolerance for this reckless behaviour that we have seen on our roads recently. It must stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach said he would be speaking to O\u2019Callaghan and An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na about the matter. <\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> justice spokesman Matt Carthy called for urgent action to crack down on stolen vehicles being driven recklessly.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Wrong-way motorway driving: M9 crash is latest incident as young men chase social media \u2018likes\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThese incidents highlight a very serious and growing threat to public safety that requires a co-ordinated response from across the justice system,\u201d Carthy said, adding that while a vehicle pursuit was not always the safest option, garda\u00ed needed the resources, equipment and training to deal with such cases. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes the capacity to quickly close roads, deploy stinger devices where appropriate, co-ordinate air support and prevent vehicles from driving the wrong way on to motorways.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was critical of Minister of State for road transport Se\u00e1n Canney, who earlier on Monday said he was waiting for garda\u00ed to specify which supports the force needed to better respond to such incidents. <\/p>\n

Social Democrats justice spokesman Gary Gannon said Canney\u2019s comments were \u201cextraordinary\u201d, given groups representing garda\u00ed had sought specialist pursuit training, a comprehensive national pursuit framework and a dedicated professional driving licence for Garda members carrying out pursuits. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan said Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien was preparing legislation to strengthen protections for garda\u00ed involved in pursuits.<\/p>\n

He said he had spoken to the Garda Commissioner on Monday about the legitimate points made by the Garda Representative Association<\/a> in respect of pursuit training. He said the training would be introduced this year. <\/p>\n

GRA vice-president John Joe O\u2019Connell said the BMW had earlier failed to stop for garda\u00ed and it was his understanding that an instruction was given not to engage with the vehicle as it travelled the wrong way down the M9.<\/p>\n

The Minister acknowledged the \u201cextremely difficult judgment\u201d call involved in initiating a Garda pursuit of a car, particularly one driving the wrong way down a motorway, as it could result in \u201ceven more serious injuries\u201d than those seen on Sunday.<\/p>\n

However, he said there \u201cmay be situations where it is appropriate\u201d to pursue a car that will not stop.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan also said he wanted to introduce a specific offence for deliberately driving the wrong way down a motorway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is using a vehicle as a weapon, and it is a lethal form of behaviour that, as we saw over the weekend, results in deaths and serious injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minister said social media companies had a big responsibility not to allow posts that \u201cglorify criminal behaviour\u201d on their platforms. \u2013 Additional reporting by Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na would be given \u201cwhatever resources\u201d were required to deal with dangerous driving, including pursuit training,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[956,9,10,18,13,14,61425,6,19,17,26735,29801,3625,11,12,15,16,5765,5,11697,47,7,8],"class_list":["post-642922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-garda-representative-association","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jim-ocallaghan","tag-justin-kelly","tag-kildare","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-road-safety","tag-sinn-fein","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117114521914234008","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}