A teenager driving a stolen car had hit speeds of 175km/h before he drove the wrong way down the M8 motorway in North Cork and crashed into another car, The Irish Times has learned. The collision claimed the life of another teenager.
The stolen Toyota Corolla was clocked by gardaí travelling at 175km/h on the old N8 near Kilbehenny, just outside Mitchelstown, early on Saturday morning, before it entered on to the northbound lane of the M8 and proceeded to head south against the oncoming traffic.
Gardaí, who had been seeking to stop the stolen car, called off their pursuit of the Toyota when it went down the motorway the wrong way. Minutes later the car was involved in a head-on collision with a Kia driven by a woman heading northwards.
The front seat passenger in the stolen Toyota Corolla, Johnny Foley (16) from Spur Hill in Cork city, was fatally injured in the collision. The four other occupants of the car all sustained serious injuries and were rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital.
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The driver of the car, a 17-year-old male, suffered a broken leg and other injuries in the crash. A 16-year-old male suffered a fractured spine and the two other occupants of the car, a 19-year-old male and a 13-year-old female, also suffered serious injuries.
The driver of the other car, a 37-year-old woman from Glanmire on the outskirts of Cork city, also suffered serious head and facial injuries in the collision. The incident happened at Ballybeg, south of Mitchelstown, on the M8 at around 1am on Saturday morning.
All five remain in Cork University Hospital, with two of the teenagers in a serious condition after undergoing emergency surgery, and gardaí are awaiting medical approval from doctors before seeking to speak to the driver of the car.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that gardaí had two separate interactions with the stolen Toyota Corolla in the hour or so prior to the fatal collision, when the driver failed to stop despite being signalled repeatedly to do so by gardaí.
Gardaí were alerted that the Toyota Corolla, which had been stolen from outside a house at Grange on the southside of Cork city at about 2.30am on Thursday, had been spotted in Glanworth in North Cork around midnight on Friday night.
Gardaí proceeded to Glanworth but lost the car on back roads around the North Cork village. They came upon the car again half an hour later when it was speeding through Kildorrery village, at about 12.30am, as it headed east towards the motorway.
Gardaí abandoned their pursuit of the stolen car when it turned on to the motorway and drove the wrong way; but the matter was referred to the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) because of the two earlier interactions with the stolen vehicle.
Gsoc confirmed it had received a referral about the incident from gardai under Section 102(1) of the Garda Síochána Act, 2005. “The matter is now under examination by Gsoc further to section 91 of the Garda Síochána Act, 2005. As such, no further comment will be made at this time,” it said.
The funeral of Johnny Foley will take place at the Church of the Assumption, Ballyphehane, on Wednesday morning.
