Carnage on the M1

Pacing Mule

Passed through this about 45 minutes ago and couldn't count how many incidents were happening in one go.

Quite a few damaged Garda vehicles in what appeared to be the main incident. Looked like a car chase that had resulted in a forced stop. Crash on the other side of the motorway (caused perhaps by rubber necking) People running along the central median. Damaged / pulled over cars dotted across the traffic queue behind the main incident and a car with a lot of smoke coming from it which was later reported as being on fire by Live Drive radio. No visible damage to that car at the time so it could well have gone on fire as a coincidence. Never seen anything like it.

I'm hoping everyone involved was ok. Not going to comment on the damage to many other vehicles from what looks like a Garda chase until some clear facts come out. Anyone have any details on this incident ?

endacl

What? You're not going to comment, but you want others to?

Arthur Daley

Saw it. Garda helicopter on the job. Presume it had to be a chase. Place crawling with guards and a few other cars in the median. Can't see anything on news sites about it though

lycan238

Dub: 2 lanes of M1 southbound before the exit for the M50 are blocked by a collision. One lane northbound closed.

posted by @aaroadwatch on twitter at 18:51 today.

Pacing Mule

endacl wrote: »

What? You're not going to comment, but you want others to?

Less of the smarts please I've commented on what I saw, am hoping people are alright and asked did anyone have any further details. I'm not going to knee jerk into a bash the Garda thread because what looks like a car chase has caused what appears to be a lot of damage to other road users. For all I know the Gardai have just saved a lot more innocent motorists from further damage. I don't know the facts so am refraining from commenting on that aspect.

RandomAccess

Image credit to Brendan Duffy, see below

https://mobile.twitter.com/Bduffyphoto/status/355024205894529024

Pacing Mule

^^^^^^

The set of Garda cars wedged around / beat into what looked like a chased car was about 200 metres further up the road beyond the bus you can see in the distance. That car on fire was looking like a bad overheat when we passed it. It was still moving and the driver was pulling up onto the central median at that point. To the right of that pic on the other carriageway there had been another incident too and a lot of people were out of their cars there.

R.O.R

Glad I got through before that. At least it was on a section with enough lanes to cope. If that happened 3 or 4 miles further North it would still be going on tomorrow morning!

tatli_lokma

As I was passing the airport junction northbound an unmarked car tore up the road, siren flashing and headed for airport pretty sharpish. By the time I reached the swords exit three more cars passed by, sirens blaring heading southbound. I was wondering what the heck they were all tearing off to. Must have been shortly after that the accidents happened. I hope nobody was hurt.

eh i dunno

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0710/461740-high-speed-pursuit-m1/

RandomAccess

Good on the Gardai,
Wish our "justice" system did as good a job.

Turner

RandomAccess wrote: »

Good on the Gardai,

You wont get too many people saying that here, or even many people posting on this thread.

If a Garda car parks on double yellow lines or does somebody for speeding the corresponding thread will be 300+ posts with 20,000 views.

Just the way it goes i suppose :rolleyes:

Hope all members involved in this dangerous pursuit got to go home in one piece afterwards.

shankespony

The scumbags will be out on bail before you can blink, will probably do it again tomorrow, great justice system. We end up paying for damage etc , great country!

dh0011

hopefully it is old mondeo squad cars that were damaged that can just be thrown away. Garda resources are tight enough without losing cars that had a lot of life in them

Mister Jingles

dh0011 wrote: »

hopefully it is old mondeo squad cars that were damaged that can just be thrown away. Garda resources are tight enough without losing cars that had a lot of life in them

Not many garda would agree with you there, the general census is that the Mondeo is still preferred over the new Avensis over on the ES forums.

dh0011

i might have made my point badly. Most of those mondeos are from about 2007 when the government had the large contract won by ford. The majority of these have high milage and are close to the end of their life.

I wanted to say hopefully something that is nearly ready to be retired was damaged instead of a relatively new car.

Turner

Turner wrote: »

You wont get too many people saying that here, or even many people posting on this thread.

If a Garda car parks on double yellow lines or does somebody for speeding the corresponding thread will be 300+ posts with 20,000 views.

Just the way it goes i suppose :rolleyes:

Hope all members involved in this dangerous pursuit got to go home in one piece afterwards.

Since you're talking in absolutes I will too. Is the shutting down of several lanes of a motorway along with a vehicle fire a desirable outcome?

Cookie_Monster

Deleted User wrote: »

Is the shutting down of several lanes of a motorway along with a vehicle fire a desirable outcome?

It could be, who know what else could have happened

Turner

Deleted User wrote: »

Since you're talking in absolutes I will too. Is the shutting down of several lanes of a motorway along with a vehicle fire a desirable outcome?

Definitely...

Incidents like this could easily end up resulting in a fatality, or even worse an innocent party being killed.

Cookie_Monster

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

It could be, who know what else could have happened

Generally on police chase TV shows the alternative is getting a warrant the next day.

Turner

Turner wrote: »

Definitely...

Incidents like this could easily end up resulting in a fatality, or even worse an innocent party being killed.

Unless it's something worth making the news on it's own I can rarely see the justification for a high-speed chase.

ardle1

Deleted User wrote: »

Unless it's something worth making the news on it's own I can rarely see the justification for a high-speed chase.

Well just imagine this whole incident saved one kid from coming into contact with heroin! what would your view be then. BTW never mind RTÉ or even the local paper.

ardle1

ardle1 wrote: »

Well just imagine this whole incident saved one kid from coming into contact with heroin! what would your view be then. BTW never mind RTÉ or even the local paper.

Are you trying to make me say that drugs are bad? I'm not a politician, I won't be drawn into this!

Del2005

ardle1 wrote: »

Well just imagine this whole incident saved one kid from coming into contact with heroin! what would your view be then. BTW never mind RTÉ or even the local paper.

What made you think it was drugs?

Sure it's obvious, if they'd gotten to the end of the M1 they'd never be spotted on CCTV anywhere in the city.

corktina

generally if you dealt with this with a warrant the next day, you would suffer a lack of evidence. Well done the Gards!

Max Power1

shankespony wrote: »

The scumbags will be out on bail before you can blink, will probably do it again tomorrow, great justice system. We end up paying for damage etc , great country!

Unfortunately yes this is the crap country we live in

RandomAccess wrote: »

Good on the Gardai,
Wish our "justice" system did as good a job.

+1, I'm the first to insult AGS normally - but credit where its due!

Anan1

That's a fairly serious mess. I don't see how anyone can either praise or condemn the actions of the Gardaí with the information we have now - we simply don't know enough about what happened.

arleitiss

What car was it anyone knows? I mean the car that police was chasing?

Anan1

arleitiss wrote: »

What car was it anyone knows? I mean the car that police was chasing?

Read the link in post #10.

arleitiss

Anan1 wrote: »

Read the link in post #10.

I did, but I can't see any info on car make and model

Anan1

arleitiss wrote: »

I did, but I can't see any info on car make and model

Sorry, I misunderstood your question. I've no idea what type of car it was.

keithclancy

The word 'carnage' is used a bit too freely these days.

car·nage
/ˈkärnij/
Noun
The killing of a large number of people.
Synonyms
massacre - slaughter - butchery - bloodshed - bloodbath

I blame the RSA.

rovoagho

Exactly. OP perpetuating RSA nonsense. Needs to read less Star.

bear1

It was a Volvo S80 I think... open to correction. Wish there was a video of it

A GARDA was injured after three squad cars were rammed in a high-speed chase along Dublin's M1 motorway.





The garda was left with eye injuries and facial lacerations when three garda cars intercepted the stolen car on the Dublin-Belfast road at the M1-M50 junction.
The PSNI had been tailing the men, all understood to be in their late teens, and alerted gardai when the car drove south of the Border.
Rush-hour traffic across the region was hit by severe delays after two lanes of the M1 were closed at the M50 junction for a number of hours.


The drama unfolded shortly after 5pm when gardai gave chase to a vehicle they had spotted at the Drogheda exit of the M1, which was travelling at over 130km/h.


At least three squad cars, assisted by the garda helicopter, pursued the vehicle which weaved in and out of traffic.
Gardai attempted to stop the car near the M1/M50 junction during the chase, which lasted 12 minutes.


Sources believe the gang were involved in a spate of burglaries in Northern Ireland and were travelling in the direction of Dublin Airport before they were apprehended at around 5.30pm.
RAMMING
Back-up gardai were brought in before the ramming happened about 50 yards before the slip road to the motorway junction.


A senior garda source said the incident was "being treated very seriously".
"It's lucky that no one was killed and particularly that no motorists were caught in the carnage," the source added.
One garda was injured in the incident and rushed to hospital with facial injuries caused by shattered glass.


A small car fire broke out as the three men were arrested, but emergency services were on the scene within minutes and it was quickly put out.
Brendan Duffy, from Irishtown, who was at the scene, said: "We saw the car on fire and I thought it was going to explode."


The men were being detained at Ballymun garda station last night. Gardai said investigations were ongoing, but they were following a definite line of inquiry.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/garda-injured-after-squad-cars-rammed-in-highspeed-chase-29411900.html

ironclaw

It took the Gardai from the Drogheda exit to the M1/M50 interchange to stop them? 50km? Thats laughable, I'm sorry. Unless the report above is incorrect or misleading in some regard.

Anan1

keithclancy wrote: »

The word 'carnage' is used a bit too freely these days.



I blame the RSA.

Actually, blame the Gardaí:

wrote:

A senior garda source said the incident was "being treated very seriously".
"It's lucky that no one was killed and particularly that no motorists were caught in the carnage," the source added.

keithclancy

ironclaw wrote: »

It took the Gardai from the Drogheda exit to the M1/M50 interchange to stop them? 50km? Thats laughable, I'm sorry. Unless the report above is incorrect or misleading in some regard.

Its a motorway, the car was probably traveling in excess of 200km/h

That's 15 minutes at that speed.
Also its quite difficult to coordinate anything up ahead on the motorway without endangering other road users or the Gardai themselves.

Using the cars to stop them was a last resort.

Even in other countries the chases can go on for much longer, deploying tyres spikes on the motorway would be very dangerous too.

Sinister Pigeon

Anan1 wrote: »

Actually, blame the Gardaí:

I blame the peace process.
Back in the day that car would never have made it back across the border.

Anan1

Sinister Pigeon wrote: »

I blame the peace process.
Back in the day that car would never have made it back across the border.

Funny, I'd just been thinking that same thing myself.

The Muppet

ironclaw wrote: »

It took the Gardai from the Drogheda exit to the M1/M50 interchange to stop them? 50km? Thats laughable, I'm sorry. Unless the report above is incorrect or misleading in some regard.

To put it another way it took the Garda about 20 minutes to get everything in place to make an effective safe stop in Rush hour traffic on a motorway, i don't find that laughable at all.

I hope the injured Garda makes a speedy recovery.

tatli_lokma

keithclancy wrote: »

Its a motorway, the car was probably traveling in excess of 200km/h

That's 15 minutes at that speed.
Also its quite difficult to coordinate anything up ahead on the motorway without endangering other road users or the Gardai themselves.

Using the cars to stop them was a last resort.

Even in other countries the chases can go on for much longer, deploying tyres spikes on the motorway would be very dangerous too.

The Garda cars that passed me were travelling very fast indeed, so they were definitely 'giving chase'.

urajoke

ironclaw wrote: »

It took the Gardai from the Drogheda exit to the M1/M50 interchange to stop them? 50km? Thats laughable, I'm sorry. Unless the report above is incorrect or misleading in some regard.

I take it you have never watched any of the police programmes on the tele from all over the world ? Can I suggest that you do.

Where this stop would be considered on par with them all.

Anan1

urajoke wrote: »

I take it you have never watched any of the police programmes on the tele from all over the world ? Can I suggest that you do.

Where this stop would be considered on par with them all.

With all due respect, this makes about as much sense as watching Bugs Bunny cartoons to learn about rabbits.

positron

keithclancy wrote: »

Also its quite difficult to coordinate anything up ahead on the motorway without endangering other road users or the Gardai themselves.

+1.

I was on M1 around 6:20 - 6:30 heading north, and as I took the Lissenhall exit and turned towards Donabate, there was an unmarked garda car waiting on the north side of the overbridge, looking out onto Southbound traffic coming towards them. I guessed something was up, and I am glad I missed it - more vulnerable on a motorbike and all.

Pacing Mule

cisk / Independent News wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/garda-injured-after-squad-cars-rammed-in-highspeed-chase-29411900.html



A senior garda source said the incident was "being treated very seriously".
"It's lucky that no one was killed and particularly that no motorists were caught in the carnage," the source added.
One garda was injured in the incident and rushed to hospital with facial injuries caused by shattered glass.

A small car fire broke out as the three men were arrested, but emergency services were on the scene within minutes and it was quickly put out.
Brendan Duffy, from Irishtown, who was at the scene, said: "We saw the car on fire and I thought it was going to explode."

That doesn't exactly tally with what I saw and indeed the pictures linked earlier in the thread.

And I'm fairly certain Mr Duffy's quote was taken whilst talking about a car on fire that wasn't actually the chased car.