Five teenagers killed in Kildare after filming wrong‑way driving on motorway
Victims aged 15–18 were in a stolen BMW that struck an oncoming car carrying four family members who were seriously hurt.
Five teenagers died in a motorway crash in County Kildare, Ireland, after recording themselves driving the wrong way in a stolen BMW, police and local reports say.
The group, aged between 15 and 18, were travelling in the stolen BMW on a Kildare motorway southwest of Dublin when it collided head-on with a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction. Four members of the other vehicle's family were seriously injured.
The BMW had been taken the night before and was reported seen in several locations around Kildare before the fatal collision. Local residents told authorities the youths had been carrying out burglaries and vehicle thefts in recent days and frequently published videos showing them evading police. One clip shared shortly before the crash filmed the car's rear-view mirror and was captioned "wrong way".
Growing concern over social media-fuelled daredevil behaviour
Experts and politicians say the collision is part of a disturbing pattern of posting reckless driving videos on TikTok and other platforms. Mary Aiken, professor of forensic cyberpsychology at the University of East London, warned that the search for thrills and peer approval online can intensify dangerous behaviour.
"I would describe it as hybrid behaviour. While they are driving, they simultaneously record content for later posting or live broadcasting. They have one foot in the real world and the other in cyberspace. They think only about likes and how their faces will look," Aiken said, adding that the virtual space can psychologically preoccupy a person and increase risk-taking and disregard for the consequences.
TikTok declined an invitation to appear before the Irish parliament's media committee, a move the committee chair Alan Kelly called "a slap" for the Irish public. Some politicians are demanding tougher penalties, including proposals to classify driving the wrong way on a motorway as attempted murder.
Police officials say they can try to stop such drivers, but emphasise that prevention requires wider societal action: parents, teachers and social services must intervene to steer young people with behavioural problems away from dangerous paths, they said.
Photo: press material from the event
