Garda pursuit training gap laid bare after five die on the M9

Trouble on the M9 as Gardaí decided to not chase car

A stolen BMW had already failed to stop for gardaí, and by the time it entered the northbound carriageway at Junction 3 near Moone, Co Kildare, travelling in the wrong direction, the instruction was to stand down.

Five teenage boys in that car died in the head-on collision that followed.

On Monday the Garda Representative Association offered part of the explanation: not one member of the force, it said, has completed Garda pursuit training.

Four people in the second vehicle, a Hyundai carrying a seven-year-old boy, were taken to hospital in conditions ranging from serious to critical.

The GRA's claim moves the story past a single collision and onto a harder question: what are gardaí equipped to do when a stolen car turns into oncoming traffic, and what happens to the member who tries?

The Garda pursuit training gap, in the GRA's words

GRA vice-president John Joe O'Connell, who is based in Kildare, said members were “all in shock” after the “horrific incident”.

The BMW had failed to stop earlier that night, he said, and his understanding was that an instruction was given not to engage once it went the wrong way.

Asked whether that was standard procedure, he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that it was.

"It would be standard practice, and the command and control centre would be dictating what happens in a live environment," said O'Connell

The GRA vice-president continued, saying that "members in the cars have to make a split-second decision."

On training he was blunter: “There's not one member of An Garda Síochána trained in pursuit, never mind in dealing with cars going down the wrong way.”

He added that there is “nobody trained in a non-compliant stop”, and said the GRA wants a proper framework for dealing with drivers who refuse to pull in.

Members who do engage, he said, can face internal sanctions, discipline, criminal charges and ultimately disqualification.

“We're damned if you do and damned if you don't.”

Stolen cars, and driving for ‘social media likes’

O'Connell described “numerous gangs” of boys and young men trying to “outdo each other” through videos of their interactions with gardaí, footage of pursuits and of cars heading the wrong way down motorways, filmed for “likes”.

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, who said gardaí were placed in a “really challenging situation”, was equally direct in a statement on Sunday evening.

"What makes this reckless behaviour even more appalling is that in some cases it is being done for social media likes," said Garda Commissioner Kelly.

He added that the acts disregard "the potentially devastating impact it might have on innocent people and themselves."

Professor Mary Aiken, a cyberpsychologist at Capital Technology University in Washington DC, argued that the platforms hosting the footage are where change can come fastest.

Restricting videos that glorify dangerous behaviour “is the first place that I would start in a policy context”, she said, adding that social media companies “claim not to be a form of media, and yet they are”.

What the Government is preparing

Minister of State Seán Canney confirmed that legislation to protect gardaí pursuing dangerous drivers is being worked on, and said the ball is now with Garda management.

“I am prepared to bring in additional measures to protect Gardaí and to help Gardaí in pursuit of the laws,” the Galway TD said.

“I am waiting for the Gardaí to come back with what supports they need or what legislation they need me to put in place.”

The GRA's call for a training framework, as The Journal reported, lands on the same desk.

The Garda response on the night has been referred to Fiosrú, the Garda Ombudsman, and post-mortem examinations are due on the five teenagers, whose bodies were taken to Naas General Hospital.

It caps a bleak summer on Irish roads, from Garda road policing over the bank holiday to a fatal crash in Co Donegal.

The family driving to Dublin Airport remain in hospital, and the force told to stand down is waiting to learn what it will be trained to do next time.