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THE DRIVER OF the car in which five people died in the early hours of Sunday morning was actively seeking a chase from gardaí in County Kildare on Saturday night, officers believe, and drove the wrong way on the M9 motorway at least twice before the fatal collision.
The five occupants of the BMW, all teenagers aged between 14 and 16, died in the crash after colliding head-on with a second car.
Three women and a young boy in the second car were seriously injured and remain in hospital for treatment today.
As investigations into the collision continue, here’s what we’ve learned so far about the movements of the car.
In the hours before the crash, gardaí in Kildare and Carlow were aware that a car, with a number of people on board, was in the area. Officers on patrol were on the lookout for them.
The teenagers involved, it is understood, were from Carlow, Kildare and Limerick, but many of them had links across several counties.
Gardaí received reports that the group, who were reportedly masked, were touring the area near Athy town in Kildare looking to find cars to steal.
The reports to garda units on patrol were that a car “was on the go” with a number of people on board “trying cars”.
The garda units were informed that the black car had been spotted either involved in a burglary or attempting break-ins. As reported by The Journal on Saturday, there’s been a pattern of gangs of young car thieves committing burglaries to steal car keys in recent months.
It is understood that gardaí are still investigating the ownership of the BMW. In the immediate aftermath of the collision it was a suspected-stolen car, but now enquiries are trying to establish if the boys purchased the car from its lawful owner for a small sum of money.
Such cars, in some parts of the country, are known as so-called “company cars”.
Those stealing cars tend to travel in pairs so that if something goes wrong the occupants of one of the cars can collect the others. Some suspicions are that the youths were looking to steal cars to travel alongside the BMW.
It is believed the black BMW had come from the Carlow area.
At one point, in the hours before the crash, gardaí on patrol in Co Kildare spotted the black BMW driving recklessly and attempted to stop the car near Athy. It is believed gardaí stood down from a pursuit due to safety concerns and the car went away from them.
In the following hours there were reports that the BMW was spotted at a service station forecourt and other locations. However, each time gardaí arrived at those locations the vehicle was “gone on arrival”.
All of the activity happened between Junctions 2a, three and four – all between the Kildare towns of Athy and Castledermot.
What The Journal has established is that the car sped down the wrong way on the motorway at least on two occasions, and possibly three times. Sources believe the occupants were looking for a chase from garda units.
They first drove down the southbound lane against the flow of traffic and then performed a u-turn, it’s believed.
It’s understood the car headed up the motorway the correct way and stopped at a large motorway service station. Gardaí moved units into the area and at some point shortly after that the BMW driver spotted a garda car near the location and sped off.
It is at this point that they drove the wrong way into oncoming traffic on the M9.
The gardaí in the car that was near the service station are understood to be experienced officers and it’s believed the garda at the wheel had undergone specialist driver training. They did not follow the car onto the motorway.
Sometime between 2am and 3am on Sunday morning the driver of the car, with four of his gang onboard, went near the motorway again on back roads.
They entered a slip road the wrong way and into the flow of oncoming traffic, before crashing head-on with the innocent motorist driving the second car.
Multiple garda sources, independent of each other, said the gardaí were not pursuing the vehicle at the time and that any pursuit had stopped well before the collision.
The reason car thieves drive the wrong way down motorways is because they know gardaí will not be allowed to continue with a pursuit to arrest them.
The issue for gardaí is one of risk mitigation and that once the car that is trying to evade them is driven against the flow of oncoming traffic there is little that can be done to stop it.
Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly referred to precisely this scenario on Sunday night in his statement when he said gardaí “are put in a really challenging situation dealing with such incidents”.
There has been a surge recently of gangs of young car thieves posting videos of encounters with gardaí on social media platforms, including footage of them escaping garda pursuits by driving the wrong way on motorways.
As reported extensively by The Journal, most gardaí are not trained to pursue cars or motorbikes.
While there are trained garda drivers who are known as “official drivers” on units, many gardaí are driving patrol cars after just a one-day course, known as CBD-1, and are not permitted to use lights and sirens.
Sources have said that there are other tactics that can be used like shutting down motorways between junctions or more robust hard stops early in a chase – this means police cars colliding with the vehicle to stop it.
There is no appetite by politicians and authorities in Ireland to give all gardaí the capability of mounting ‘hard stops’ – at the moment only certain specialist units are allowed carry them out. The other issue is that there are not enough gardaí to close roads to block a stolen car, in most situations.
Moone
Coming back to the aftermath of the crash, at around 3am on Sunday morning a motorist came across the scene of the collision on the road, in the townland of Moone.
Such was the impact of the collision that the bodies of the teenagers killed lay not just inside the shell of the car but nearby, having been flung from the vehicle. Their injuries were so bad that it has complicated identification.
The four injured occupants of the Hyundai car were taken to hospital – two of them were critically injured. They were en route to an airport to travel to a wedding abroad, it is understood.
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