Gardaí ordered not to chase wrong‑way car before deadly Kildare crash
The Garda Representative Association has stated that officers were instructed to disengage from a stolen vehicle before a fatal head-on M9 collision.
Irish police were explicitly instructed to disengage from pursuing a stolen vehicle moments before a devastating head-on collision on the M9 motorway, according to the Garda Representative Association (GRA). The crash occurred on the northbound M9 at Junction 3 in County Kildare at about 03:00 local time on Sunday. A family car bound for Dublin Airport was struck by a stolen BMW travelling in the wrong direction, resulting in the deaths of five teenagers inside the BMW and serious injuries to four occupants of the second vehicle, including a child.
Tara McManus, Assistant General Secretary of the GRA, explained that officers had attempted to bring the vehicle to a stop on several occasions over a number of hours, deploying stinger devices before the car entered the motorway lanes. Once the vehicle took evasive action, the command and control centre intervened.
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"At that stage our members would not continue in that pursuit and the directions that were given by our command and control centre were to disengage,"
Tara McManus, Assistant General Secretary of the Garda Representative Association, via BBC
McManus stated that disengaging represents standard procedure when a driver takes such evasive measures, noting further that ordinary road-policing officers lack formal pursuit training and face severe personal consequences if they take unapproved actions.
The victims killed in the collision were named locally as Joe Carthy from Athy, County Kildare, Alex McCarthy from Carlow, Kamil Pustkowski from Limerick, Jeremy O’Brien, and Jack Kennedy, according to RTÉ News. Reports from the Irish Mirror, confirmed by other outlets, noted that the teenagers inside the stolen car were wearing balaclavas or masks.
GRA Vice-President John Joe O’Connell addressed the policy during an appearance on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme, reiterating that command and control centres dictate operational responses in live environments. He emphasized the pressures officers face when forced to make split-second choices.
"There’s not one member of An Garda Síochána trained in pursuit – never mind in dealing with cars going down the wrong way."
John Joe O’Connell, Vice-President of the Garda Representative Association, via Manchester Evening News
O’Connell warned that officers who engage in unauthorized pursuits risk internal discipline, sanctions, and potential criminal offences. He also highlighted a dangerous online phenomenon involving gangs of young men filming interactions with police and wrong-way driving for social media validation.
"Our members are not going to follow down that route – we’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, that way."
John Joe O’Connell, Vice-President of the Garda Representative Association, via Mirror
Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly described the crash between junctions 3 and 4 as horrific, echoing concerns that vehicles are increasingly being driven on the wrong side of motorways to secure social media likes. The tragedy follows an incident the previous weekend on Dublin's M50, where nine people were injured in a head-on collision involving a wrong-way driver.
Leo Lieghio, vice president of the Irish Road Victims Association, called for immediate structured intervention and consequences to address dangerous road behaviour. Drawing from his own family's experience after losing his daughter in a 2005 collision, Lieghio noted the profound grief experienced by the families involved in the Kildare crash.
"Their lives have been turned upside down through no fault of their own. They will be going through hell."
Leo Lieghio, Vice-President of the Irish Road Victims Association, via BBC
According to BBC figures cited in the reporting, the Republic of Ireland has recorded 123 road deaths so far in 2026, marking an increase of 18 fatalities compared to the same period in 2025.
