The vice president of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) has said that “not one garda member” is “trained in pursuit”, and called for “proper training” in the wake of the horrific collision on the M9 early Sunday morning.
A car deliberately drove at speed down the wrong direction on the motorway leading to five people in a suspected stolen vehicle being killed in a head-on collision, while four people in the car they smashed into were seriously injured.
John Joe O’Connell, vice president of the GRA, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the BMW being driven by the teenagers had been stolen and that it drove the wrong way down the motorway in order to evade gardaí.
He said that earlier that night the stolen vehicle had failed to stop for gardaí, and that it is standard practice for garda members to stand down a pursuit if a vehicle drives the wrong way.
“It would be standard practice [not to chase a vehicle down the wrong way]. The command-and-control centre would be dictating what happens,” the GRA representative said.
“There are different levels of driver training available to gardaí,” said Mr 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,” he said.
Mr O’Connell said cars driving in the wrong direction 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,” he said.
“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.”
SEEKING SOCIAL MEDIA LIKES
Yesterday, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said that the “horrific” head-on collision showed how “irresponsible and dangerous driving on the wrong side of the motorway is”, and said this was being done for social media likes.
Mr Kelly said his thoughts are with those injured in the collision on the M9. “These family members were travelling innocently when they were struck by a vehicle being driven the wrong way down the motorway,” he said.
“This horrific incident, following the recent collision on the M50, shows how irresponsible and dangerous driving on the wrong side of the motorway is.”
“That, of course, should be self-evident, but 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.”
“As this particular incident has been referred to Fiosrú, the Police Ombudsman, I am constrained in what I can say in detail about this incident, but I know that gardaí do what they can to stop such vehicles while also taking into consideration all other road users,” the Garda Commissioner said.
“Gardaí are put in a really challenging situation dealing with such incidents,” he added.
“As always, An Garda Síochána will fully co-operate with the Police Ombudsman investigation which I hope is completed as expeditiously as possible.”
On Morning Ireland today, John Joe O’Connell also referred to the influence of social media and gangs.
“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,” he said.
“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.”