Mary Aiken said the drivers in the wrong-way M9 crash were filming social media reckless driving videos while driving, with five teenagers killed and a family of four injured last week. The crash has fed anger in Ireland over the videos, the policing response and what comes next for the injured family.
Mary Aiken and the M9
The BMW was driving the wrong way down the M9 at about 3am on 16 August when it hit a Hyundai. The five boys who died were Joe Carthy, 15, Kamil Pustkowski, 17, Jack Kennedy, 17, Alex McCarthy, 17, and Jeremy O’Brien, 18.
Aiken, a professor of forensic cyberpsychology at the University of East London, said: "I would describe it as hybrid behaviour. While driving the car, they’re simultaneously filming and capturing content for posting later or live streaming. They have one foot in the real world and one foot in cyberspace." She added: "They’re thinking about the likes, they’re thinking about kudos."
Ella Hendricken and the family
The crash injured Ella Hendricken, Niamh Kinsella and Alma Kinsella, along with Alma’s seven-year-old son. They were travelling to Dublin airport for a family wedding in the UK when the BMW hit their Hyundai.
A fundraising appeal for the family has raised more than €660,000. That outpouring has sat alongside abusive online commentary about the five boys, and relatives withdrew funeral notices after it.
County Carlow and Athy
Police believe the masked occupants of the BMW had earlier broken into homes and cars in County Kildare, south-west of Dublin, before they appeared to try to bait patrol cars into a pursuit. Three of the boys were known to Tusla, and several of them had previously posted videos of reckless driving.
The first funeral, for McCarthy, was held on Friday in Athy, with family members wearing T-shirts bearing his photograph. A vigil was planned in County Carlow on Friday evening, as the pressure now sits on whether Ireland responds to the videos with tighter enforcement and a clearer online response.
