Of the 12,000 members of An Garda Síochána just eight have been trained to forensically investigate the causes of high-speed fatal road traffic accidents.
The eight officers have been forced to fund their own training on specialised UK courses at a cost of €5,000, and in some cases have not been fully reimbursed, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has been told at its a.g.m. in Cork.
One delegate, Sgt Jim Doddy, said the lack of expertise in investigating crashes meant many people never found out how and why their loved ones lost their lives on the roads.
"The crashes that we are seeing today are very high speed, with a lot of fatalities and a lot of serious injuries. You can arrive at a crash scene and a body can have been thrown into a field, the engine of a car might be 100 yards away with debris scattered over a very large distance.
"When you arrive at the scene at first glance you often have no idea what exactly happened."
Although basic crash scene training given to trainee gardaí was sufficient for minor accidents, it was unsuitable for many of today's crashes, which often involved high-powered sports cars on motorways, he said.
If officers were properly trained to carry out forensic investigations at crash scenes, the causes could be established and in some cases criminal proceedings begun, including proceedings against manufacturers of faulty car parts. This would give closure to many families, he added.
In the UK, crash scenes are treated as crime scenes. Forensically trained officers are given video equipment to record the scene before any evidence has been moved. Measures of skid marks and the position of debris are taken. A computer reconstruction of the crash can then be built.
Sgt Doddy said forensically trained officers had examined the Wellington Quay bus crash in Dublin, in which five people were killed. This should greatly assist the investigation, he said.
In serious accidents, particularly those involving public or commercial vehicles, the manufacturers of such vehicles often insisted their experts take part in the investigation. If gardaí did not have the skills to match those experts, it was difficult for them to play a leading, or even equal part, in the investigation, he said.
AGSI delegates adopted a motion directing the national executive of the association to call on Garda management to begin training courses.
Some AGSI delegates suggested that discounts could be secured from course operators in the UK if courses were block-booked.
Tuition could also be divided into modules of a number of weeks duration to accommodate gardaí who were unable to be out of the country and away from work for prolonged periods.
