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GRA Welcomes Announcement Of Pursuit Training For Garda Members Following M9 Crash In Moone

Photo: Rolling News

It comes as no member of the force was qualified to pursue the car that drove the wrong way on the motorway on Sunday

The Garda Representative Association have welcomed announcements for Gardaí to be trained for pursuits.

It comes as no member of the force was qualified to pursue the car that drove the wrong way on the M9 in Moone on Sunday, eventually resulting in a fatal crash in which five teenagers died.

Four others are still in hospital, including three women and a 7-year-old boy, two of the women remain in a critical condition.

Speaking on Kildare Today, Vice President of the GRA and Kildare Garda John Joe O' Connell said these incidents have become all too common in recent weeks:

"We've had this incident on the M9, at least two rammings in Dublin, as well as a car with eight young lads travelling the wrong way down the M50 (in Knocklyon) about a week ago, and I can give you numerous other examples across the country that our members are dealing with."

Garda O' Connell believed that future pursuit training is essential for members when it comes to incidents like this happening again:

"Not one member of An Garda Síochána is trained for pursuit driving, we've sought this for many years, there's certain assessments that our members achieve and to a high degree of driving patrol cars, but there is no pursuit training."

He also welcomed the Garda Commissioner's and Minister for Justice's commitments to pursuit training, but admits that it's going to take time for it to translate into results:

"That's not going to help this month or next month or even a year, maybe a handful next year will be trained in 2027.

"This incident has brought everything to the fore, the recklessness of these young teen boys has resulted in the five fatalities and four serious injuries."

The full interview can be heard below:

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