It was ruled that Gardaí "acted appropriately" regarding their pursuit of a vehicle which was involved in a fatal crash with another car while driving the wrong way on the M9 in Kildare last month.
This was confirmed by Fiosrú, the office for the Garda Ombudsman, following their investigation after five teenage boys were killed in the collision on August 16. They were named locally as Joe Carthy from Athy, Co Kildare; Alex McCarthy from Carlow; Kamil Pustkowski from Limerick; Jeremy O'Brien and Jack Kennedy.
They stated that Gardaí involved with the crash had acted in accordance with the law, with garda policies and procedures.
In their ruling, Fiosrú have said that Gardaí were following the car on N78 in Athy, Co Kildare for a short period prior to joining the M9 against the direction of traffic, before it collided with an oncoming vehicle.
The collision also saw four family members from a second car, including three woman and a seven year old boy, suffer serious injuries in the crash. They continue to recover from their injuries.
Fiosrú also found that Gardaí pursued a BMW car and permission to continue this pursuit had been granted by the garda control room. They added that other garda units had also attempted to place a stopping device at an appropriate station.
The BMW had undertaken a number of U-turns, before it collided with an oncoming vehicle, causing the fatal crash.
CCTV and radio transmissions were also obtained and used as part of this investigation, along with a briefing from the forensic collision investigator.
Speaking about this, Police Ombudsman, Emily Logan said: "Our role is to establish and examine the circumstances of what happened. Fiosrú's independent investigations into referrals of death or serious harm form an important element in the protection of fundamental and human rights in the State".
"Fiosrú’s investigation was independent of gardaí and aimed to understand events leading up to the collision".
"It found that gardaí acted appropriately, within the law, and in line with relevant policies and procedures as determined by the Garda Commissioner".
"Every death on our roads brings untold grief to families and communities. My thoughts are with family and friends and all those affected by this devastating incident, including the gardaí who attended the scene". (All quotes according to RTÉ).
Following the accident, a GoFundMe page was set up in support of the family of the three woman and young child who suffered serious injuries, with the victims' families saying this "meant more to us than we could ever properly put into words”, according to the Irish Independent. More on this from Nova here.
