How can reckless teenage driving be prevented?

[UncleColm]

We had that terrible crash recently in the UK which resulted in 7 deaths - RIP to the two Police Officers who were on duty.

In Ireland we had a very similar crash the previous week where five boys died - aged 15 to 17. All were wearing balaclavas at the time of the crash and were 'well known' to Guards. The family they crashed into were three sisters and a seven year old son of one of the sisters (on the way to the airport go to a family wedding) - they are all still in hospital and are very seriously injured.

The previous week, in Ireland, a car carrying eight teenage boys aged from as young as 13 crashed into a car being driven in the correct direction by one young man who is now seriously injured.

The boys seem to be from a mix of poor areas and Travellers. In death they are being celebrated by their families but where were these families when they were alive? Who lets their teenage boy out all night? And let's them produce tiktoks of their 'exploits'? Parental supervision is clearly not in place.

How can this reckless driving behaviour be stopped?

In Ireland there is a huge shortage of jail spaces and places to detain a child under 18. These kids couldn't care less if the Guards catch them - sure what's another Juvenile Caution to them? One of the boys who died was supposed to stay in his own County but had ignored it. They have no fear of the Guards or the law.

I work in a school and there is a huge amount of help available to Traveller children in particular but they still tend to not engage with any after school activities, don't do homework, don't go on school trips, leave school early, high absence rate, etc.

I read recently that, in Ireland, 50% of Travellers don't live beyond 39. In 2026 this a shocking statistic. I don't know what the statistics are for the poor, disadvantaged areas but I do know that the taxpayers provide Social Housing, child benefit, medical cards, free education, free school books and hot lunches, back to school allowances and a whole other host of allowances. There are many initiatives available to help people to stay in education and gain independence.

What more can be done? Is there any way of reaching these young males?

What is that something???

The social media that they use to get clicks on and therefore make money out of should be held accountable.
They should not allow such videos on their sites.
They want to be self policing. But cannot police themselves. If they could this sort of trend for reckless driving would not prevail. They would not allow the video on their site. They are incapable of policing themselves.

There are groups in society that have no regard for the law. They do not get to be treated differently to everyone else. It is as simple as that really.
Be it not sending children to school, not paying taxes. Anything.

Lock them up, crush their cars, I don't really care but I am so sick of the first response to a minority of people doing something wrong is to start restricting the rights of everyone else.

Assuming the driver of the car was one of the two 23 year olds, not being allowed to drive peers around means not being allowed to drive with a partner/girlfriend and children? I've seen people suggest nighttime restrictions so that means you can't be 23 years old and have a job with nighttime shifts or early/late starts? Surely that's not right.

This. There are parents who are not parenting, instead they want to be their child's best friend. In the school I work in CCTV was installed last year. You can only imagine the amount of time it has saved. Being able to show parents what their child has done - all permissions are in place etc. - has saved hours of parent meetings where the parent repeatedly insists that their child would not do what multiple witnesses have seen them do. And yes, we offer lots of parenting support but parents who have unparented children do not want to engage in the support offered.

All new cars need to be fitted with speed limiters. The tech is there and there is absolutely no need for any modern car to be able to bomb it down 100mph on a dual carriageway.
Road policing needs to make a comeback. Thanks to austerity, whole units of road police were disbanded, and you can really tell. The standard of driving on today's roads are appalling.
Tougher sentences on driving offences, kill someone in a car and its a slap on the wrist.
Social media need to have a blanket ban on accounts that glorify or promote criminal behaviour.
Yes this will all cost money, money we do not have. So nothing will change.

I think this kind of legislation is the way forward. Based on research (that in adolescence - before the frontal cortex is finished fully developing mid twenties) we are more likely to make risky decisions if we are with our peers, some states in the USA don’t allow you to carry passengers until a certain age. I don’t know the impact it’s had but it makes sense to put in legislation to scaffold safety until the risks are lower.

How to better support communities that are so resistant to outside help - I have no idea.

Concerning stuff.

From what I have read about the UK case, the police did stop chasing them. The police car that was hit was going the correct way on the motorway looking for the car.

Edit: spelling

I think this kind of legislation is the way forward.

The kind of people who do this stuff will break whatever rules you make anyway. If you are from a family or community who don't respect authority, you are going to be less likely generally to respect rules & abide by them.

Make it illegal to be the registered keeper (owner) of a car until you are 21.

It would be simple to require all cars to be fitted with a fingerprint unlock device before the ignition of a car could be completed. The fingerprint recognition could be on the Start button for example. You could connect this to an app, similar to how my iPhone is alerted when my dd16 wants to download an app and I have to give permission (or deny it). You might also be able to provide a blanket permission eg between 8.30am and 5.30pm weekdays, allow the young person to travel to work.

This would mean that cars could not be driven by young people who decided to borrow a parents’ car without express permission.

Then I think the icing on the cake is to make the car owner legally responsible for any crimes committed in the car by any person under the age of 21.

So then it’s up to the adult/owner to decide if a young person is allowed to drive the car.

That may be so, but it means if the police see a young person in a car that doesn’t meet the legal requirements they can intervene before there is an issue.

Facial recognition technology. The car won't start if you aren't authorised or don't have a licence or isn't insured. Car starts to slow down if speed limit exceeded. Convicted drink drivers have to blow into a box once they get their licence back.

These scrotes aren't borrowing their parents' cars. They're stealing them.

I think you underestimate how many officers are in the streets at all times. Last week there was an active robbery in my area - someone posted the video to the local fb page because they had called 999 and were on hold.

99% of the population aren’t driving the wrong way down the road in a stolen car why go to all this effort to make life harder for everyone else? Some of us had kids of our own younger than that.
These boys would have been cunts before they did this and it went unpunished when they would of been put in borstals back in the day. Borstals definitely need bring back

This is so limiting for law abiding young drivers. They will have similar requirements to older people.

On the Tik Tok mention below are the perpetrators as likely to do this stuff without the content part

...or that young person decides to make a run for it.

Its about stopping kids getting so out of control in the first place. A kid doesn't just wake up one day and go for a joyride. Lots of parents have zero control over their children and hide behind labels and just genuinely don't give a shit what their children do. Start fining parents for their childrens behaviour then the parents might step up.

This is basically what my 80 year old dad said to me about it, he thinks that national service is what’s needed

That's what I thought too, the police chase was through residential streets (there is doorbell cam footage) and they stopped when the car headed onto the motorway.

The other police car was hit head on.

@UncleColm There are no laws these criminals won't break, wasn't that long ago 3 traveller boys walked free after gang raping a 12 year old girl because the judge decided they were too stupid to understand.

What's the answer? Mass sterilisation of everyone with a low IQ or learning disabilities? Isn't there a word for that ...

Maybe arming the police is needed, but then the parents of the driver would claim wrongful death and sue.

Law abiding people are going to become terrified of driving at night though.

It’s a pointless point. The car was stolen, had fake plates and seriously you think changing the law to
upping the driving age is gonna stop people like that?! That suggests that they are law abiding citizens in the first place when it couldn’t be further from the truth!
Given their track record it was sadly only a matter of time before something like this happened.
What needs to change? The law needs to change in regards to tougher sentences to stamp on antisocial, organised crime activity. They had histories. They thought they could get away with it, because they had been getting away with it. The videos on their social media show past police chases. And social media needs taking into consideration- no idea how - but the glorifying of police chases and a ‘gangsta’ lifestyle needs clamping down on.
And lastly the parenting. All I’m seeing all over social media is these men being glorified and balloon releases etc!!
I’m local. I’m a parent of a young police officer. And my god there’s so so much I want to say about this! I am so so angry.

Exactly. The thugs that are doing this are driving stolen vehicles so as if they're going to give two hoots about insurance or dash cams or any laws intended to improve safety for new drivers and other road users.

The police and legal system need to stop pandering to lawless travelling communities. And come down hard on the parents.

Who pays and how is this being funded? Not all cars are compatible with such software, some don't even have inbuilt sat nav or still required an actual key to be turned in the ignition. Older drivers might not even have a smartphone if using Bluetooth tech on an app for this.

In a world where we'd all be microchipped and DNA coded and no one would be able to steal anything or enter anyone else's property without being scanned and approved first. Cars would be self driving and criminals wouldn't be permitted access or able to speed or kill anyone including themselves. Apparently to most of MNs that's a dystopian nightmare though.

And local policing should tackle the incredibly anti-social behaviour of stupid car meetups at night, where young people with supped up cars, bomb around empty car parks or even carriage ways every weekend. All filmed and shown on TikTok and not only total noise nuicanse to neighbours but so dangerous.

In my area, the local police claim they haven't got the necessary ANPR equipment to tackle it. FFS

DD best friend was killed last year when a 19 year old driver showing off to his mate by zig zagging lost control, mounted the pavement and killed her - she was 21. He pleaded guilty last month to death by dangerous driving. Needless to say the fall out has been massive, parents, family and friends left devastated and a life robbed because of the foolish actions of a stupid teenager. He will have this on his conscious forever and I cannot fathom how that will feel plus of course his prison sentence and for what? A moment of youthful madness.