Five teenagers have died and four other people have been seriously injured in a crash involving a car driving in the wrong direction on a motorway in Ireland, police have said. Gardaí confirmed the bodies of the youths, all male, had been removed from the scene of the two-vehicle collision, which happened in the early hours of Sunday on the M9 in County Kildare. The force said the occupants of the second vehicle involved, three women, two in their 30s and one in her 20s, and a boy, all remained in hospital with serious injuries.
The Garda commissioner, Justin Kelly, described the head-on collision between the two cars as “horrific” and said “in some cases” vehicles were being driven on the wrong side of motorways for social media likes. Last weekend, nine people were injured in a head-on collision on the M50 in Dublin involving a car travelling in the wrong direction. Describing Sunday’s crash, Kelly said: “These family members were travelling innocently when they were struck by a vehicle being driven the wrong way down the motorway.
Emergency services had been alerted to reports of a vehicle travelling southbound on the M9 northbound carriageway. Earlier, a Garda Síochána spokesperson said the female driver and front-seat passenger of the second car had been taken to Tallaght university hospital, and were in a critical condition. A female rear-seat passenger, in her 20s, was taken to St Luke’s general hospital in a serious condition.
The third passenger, a child, was taken to the Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin in Dublin, also in a serious condition. The bodies of the teenagers who died were taken to Naas general hospital, where postmortem examinations were due to take place. Gardaí are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed the collision or had dashcam footage to come forward.
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