Cork MEP calls for ‘very severe custodial sentences’ for wrong-way motorway driving

Mr Kellher said incidents of joyriding and wrong-way driving were being driven by social media. Photo: Eamon Farrell/©RollingNews.ie

Stronger custodial sentences should be used to deter wrong-way driving on motorways, according to Cork MEP Billy Kelleher.

Mr Kelleher’s comments come in the wake of a crash on the M9 where five teenage boys drove a BMW on the wrong side of the road and died in the collision.

Three sisters and a seven-year-old boy remain in hospital, where their condition is understood to be serious but stable.

In a separate incident in early August, nine people were injured on the M50 when a car carrying eight teenagers crashed while travelling on the wrong side of the motorway.

Call for tougher penalties

“It looks like that this is going to become more prevalent if it's not dealt with and the idea that we deal with it as a traffic offence or reckless endangerment in my view is not sufficient,” Mr Kelleher said on RTÉ’s Today programme.

“We also have the situation where it's becoming very much copycat orientated social media, they're doing it for many, many reasons.

“But when all of this is stripped back, a person intentionally drives down the motorway the wrong way and puts many lives at risk, and that in my view is something that just cannot be considered (as just a traffic offence).

“I’m saying that law must be changed to reflect the seriousness of this. There may be some other legal mechanism to do it, but it must be put up there with the seriousness that it deserves."

This week, justice minister Jim O’Callaghan said the Government would consider a standalone offence for driving the wrong way down the motorway.

Work is also under way to ensure gardaí undertake specialised pursuit training in response to the M9 crash.

Mr Kelleher said the issuing of penalty points was an insufficient way of dealing with the issue.

“The idea that you would put additional penalty points on a person who probably doesn't have a license in the first place, a lot of these people that are involved in this activity don't care about licenses or insurance or the rules of the road,” Mr Kelleher said.

“It is intentional criminal behaviour and it should be dealt with accordingly with very severe custodial sentences.”

Mr Kelleher said in cases where a person drove down the motorway unintentionally, the Gardaí and Director of Public Prosecutions would be able to interpret the evidence.