Kildare: Post-mortems of five teenagers killed in M9 two-vehicle crash to take place

Post-mortem examinations are to be carried out later on the bodies of five teenage boys killed when their car, which was being driven the wrong way down a motorway in County Kildare, crashed head-on into another car.

Three women, two aged in their 30s and one in her 20s, and a seven-year-old boy in the second car were injured.

Two of the women are in a critical condition, the other woman and the boy are in a serious condition.

The crash happened between junction 3 and junction 4 of the M9 motorway, at Moone, at about 03:00 local time on Sunday.

Irish broadcaster RTE is reporting, external that the family is from the Carlow area.

It adds that several of the boys who died in the crash had “strong links” to Carlow town and to Athy in County Kildare.

The vehicle the teenage boys were in was travelling southbound on the northbound carriageway when it hit the second car.

Gardaí (Irish police) have said no pursuit was taking place before the collision occurred.

The Republic of Ireland’s police ombudsman, Fiosrú is carrying out its own investigation into the crash.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said gardaí are not trained to pursue stolen cars “going down the wrong way” on a motorway.

The association’s vice president, John Joe O’Connell, said a way must be found to deal with incidents where teenage boys steal cars and play “Russian roulette” with their own and other people’s lives.

O’Connell said there are several gangs of teenage boys and men trying to “outdo each other on social media” through “videos of their interactions with gardaí”.

He said this comes in the form of “engaging in a pursuit and heading the wrong way down a dual carriageway or motorway and videoing this for ‘likes'”.