The strength of the comments made by Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly in the aftermath of Sunday morning’s fatal crash on the M9 near Moone, Co Kildare, offers an insight into the pressure senior gardaí now face in the battle against joyriding.
Groups of young men, mostly teenagers, in Dublin and surrounding counties are increasingly engaging in joyriding and crime sprees in stolen cars. And they are exploiting Garda regulations to their supposed advantage.
What are the Garda rules?
They know if they drive the wrong way down motorways, gardaí in patrols cars will not be allowed to chase them. The Garda does not want to engage in very high-risk pursuits because of the danger posed to the public and to those gardaí who would be asked to take on those pursuits.
Though many of these groups are travelling around trying to break into homes and vehicles parked outside houses, for-profit crime does not appear to be their main objective. Rather, they are motivated by a desire to get themselves into reckless scenarios, which they record for the purpose of sharing on social media. Ultimately, their aim is to gain kudos from their peers.
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In his statement on Sunday evening, Kelly referred to this, saying it was “appalling” and “reckless” for people to drive in that manner, often simply “for social media likes”.
What role do social media play?
Det Mark Ferris, a member of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) central executive committee, is based in Dublin Metropolitan Region West. He said while he was not commenting on any one case, “wrong-way driving on a motorway is an immediate and foreseeable threat to life”.
Offenders in stolen vehicles were “seeking social-media clout through content that glorifies serious criminal driving”, said Ferris. He added that the footage they were recording and posting on social media was “being allowed to circulate online” on various platforms.
“Social media companies facilitate this and must also be held to account,” Ferris told The Irish Times. “Once they become aware of criminal offences creating a threat to life, they should inform An Garda Síochána as soon as possible and take other action as necessary.
“That should mean removing or restricting the material where appropriate, preserving it as evidence and ensuring it cannot continue to promote copycat criminality and banning the uploader.”
He said gardaí “are not trained or accredited to undertake pursuits”.
Road authorities “must look at wrong-way detection and real-time alerts, camera and sensor systems and, where safely appropriate, physical measures such as one-way tyre-deflation devices that we have seen elsewhere”.
What is the background to these comments?
Sunday morning’s crash on the M9 – claiming the lives of five young males – is the latest in a series of high-risk road incidents.
One hour before the M9 crash, gardaí were responding to reports of dangerous driving on the M50 near Leopardstown, south Dublin, at around 2am. When gardaí tracked the vehicle to Glencairn Drive, The Gallops, their patrol car was rammed.
Last Tuesday night, gardaí pursued a stolen car through north Dublin. Video footage of the pursuit, filmed inside the stolen car, soon emerged on social media. Hours later, the same stolen Audi rammed a Garda car in The Ward, north Dublin, causing it to flip onto its roof, with one of the gardaí inside saying their life had flashed before their eyes.
Last Sunday week, a stolen car carrying eight young males was driven the wrong way down the M50, hitting an oncoming car driven by a man in his 20s. Miraculously, nobody was killed.
The most serious incident of recent years, before the M9 crash in the early hours of Sunday, took place in Dublin in July, 2021. Three men were killed when their stolen car burst into flames after colliding with a truck head-on. The car had been speeding down the N7 in Dublin in the wrong direction when the collision happened.
