Five Teenagers Killed Driving Wrong Way on M9 Motorway
Irish police chief Justin Kelly condemned wrong-way driving and linked it to the pursuit of likes on social media
Irish police chief Justin Kelly condemned wrong-way driving and linked it to the pursuit of likes on social media
Five teenagers were killed in a traffic accident on the M9 motorway in County Kildare, Ireland, in the early hours of Sunday, August 16, 2026. According to the Irish Times, the young men were wearing balaclavas or were otherwise masked, and were traveling in a BMW suspected of being stolen.
Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reports from Irish state broadcaster RTÉ that the car carrying the teenagers was driving in the wrong direction before the crash. In addition to the five fatalities, four people were seriously injured in the accident, which occurred on the motorway near Dublin.
The Irish Times reports that the Irish police, Gardaí, initially believed that four people had died in the crash. It was only when they moved the wreckage of the car that the remains of a fifth victim were found. The damage to the BMW was so extensive that emergency services were unable to access the bodies of the deceased for hours.
The accident occurred around 3 a.m. when the BMW collided with a Hyundai carrying three sisters in their 20s to 30s from Carlow, along with the seven-year-old son of one of them. The women and the boy were on their way to Dublin Airport, where they were to fly to Britain for a family wedding.
In the hours before the fatal collision, police had received reports of men, believed to be teenagers, attempting to break into houses and cars parked outside homes in the town of Athy, County Kildare. Gardaí believe these were the same group that later died on the motorway.
A police patrol car requested the BMW to stop around 2 a.m. in Athy, but the driver fled. The car then drove on the M9 motorway in the wrong direction on two occasions. During the first wrong-way drive, the BMW made a U-turn and left the motorway, entering a petrol station in the Kilcullen area, before returning to the M9 and driving south in the northbound lane.
Police had set up tire deflation devices, known as stingers, at junction 3 near Moone. However, the BMW did not exit the motorway but continued and crashed into the Hyundai. Two women in their 30s, the driver and front-seat passenger, were in critical condition in hospital, while a woman in her 20s and her son, passengers in the back seats, were in serious condition.
Commissioner of the Irish police, Justin Kelly, commented on the accident with words that the Irish Times describes as perhaps unprecedentedly harsh after a multi-fatality traffic accident. He called the incident "appalling" and said that the "horrific incident shows how irresponsible and dangerous driving on the wrong side of the motorway is."
Kelly added that this reckless behavior is made even more appalling by the fact that in some cases it is done for likes on social media, regardless of the potentially devastating impact it can have on innocent people and the perpetrators themselves. His thoughts, as reported by the Irish Times, were with the injured, who at that moment were "traveling innocently."
The Commissioner stressed that the police are doing what they can to stop such vehicles, but that other road users must also be considered, and that interventions are "really challenging." The Irish Times reports that the police were not pursuing the BMW at the time of the crash because patrol car drivers most likely were not allowed to chase it in the wrong direction.
The police oversight body, Fiosrú, has become involved in the case after it was referred by the Irish police. This oversight body must be notified of any incident involving serious injury or death of a person at the time of or immediately after contact with the police. The bodies of the five teenagers were taken to Naas General Hospital for autopsies.
