8 teenagers in one car that crashed

[Fromhere1]

So they were driving the wrong way on a motorway and crashed in to a single driver. At 5.30am. Apparently the car was stolen. I'm seeing photos on tiktok and they look to be very young.

Where the hell are the parents in this?! I'm seeing tiktoks where the families of these 8 boys are asking for prayers, etc. I wonder if they feel any shame at all?! Or is that an emotion they are unfamiliar with.

I think these parents need to be held accountable in some way... My sympathy lies entirely with the driver of the other car.

Unfortunately this is wishful thinking and assuming the media have any kind of moral code. Anything that shocks and upsets sells, I'd say the media absolutely loves these incidents.

No but calling it "joy"riding is equally ridiculous and stupid. 0As are headlines today blaming a "tik tok" trend.

Where is Pavee Point in all this. If some traveller family are denied entry into a hotel they are all over the media about it but absolute silence when sulky racing on dual carriageways and motorways and robbing cars and seriously injuring innocent people in wrong place at wrong time. You can find their press releases easily and on 14 Aug they welcomed a traveller heritage strategy. Nothing on sulky racing since 2025 and before that 2012.

Its bizarre that tax payer money has been spent on signs warning about sulky racing on the motorway around limerick. Untouchable.

The parents are to blame and their community is to blame. ALL their family and friends are putting up thousands of posts on FB bigging them up, there is not one word of sympathy to the family they seriously injured, they are in their own world and can see absolutely nothing wrong with what these boys did, their families have commented on past posts by the 5 boys egging then on. There are videos over the years of these and other boys robbing cars and racing them, they don't care.

We are only told of the ones that end in a serious accident, there are many many doing this and not getting caught.

Well said @muggart for sure this wasn't a first offence. I wonder how many people were terrorised by these lads and what percentage even got reported let alone acted upon. I'll bet there are many people out there feeling a little safer tonight. I'm very much in favour of early intervention and supports in conjunction with very strict consequences to minor crimes, anything to break the cycle and prevent escalation. I don't know much about our current system but I'll guess it's totally inadequate.

I think they are all dead. A massive price to pay.

Again sympathy for five young lives lost and tolerance for what they are doing doesn't go hand in hand. I think it would be in the best interests of not just the general public who are affected by their behavior but the young people who are committing these crimes if there was a zero tolerance policy. I don't think that it is kinder to these kids in the long run to let them go with a slap on the wrist. Intervention and proper intervention from the juvenile justice system needs to happen, obviously the current diversion programmes aren't working and that isn't in the best interests of anyone.

This is a very sad example of fuck about and find out. My sympathy is firmly with the poor family who were innocently on their way to the airport.

After working with prisoners, I would say that a fucking apology is never going to be enough. Having a conversation with your children… I suppose that if that could work it would have worked long before it came to that.

To be honest OP, you are probably not more clued up than the parents of these kids. What you are proposing to do wouldn’t cut it in these situations.

Again sympathy for five young lives lost and tolerance for what they are doing doesn't go hand in hand.

Absolutely.

What would you do?

We've all done stupid things as teenagers. No one knows the exact circumstances of what they were doing and why yet. Even if they are in the wrong, it's still a tragedy of young lives lost and parents/siblings will be grieving right now. Who's to blame can be discussed later.

Looks like the 'Dey Wid Da Angles Now' posts have already started ....

Did any of their community advocacy organisations come out and condemn the lawlessness of these teens ? I don’t think they did, this is the kind of thing they should be publicly condemning in their own community and working with the families and friends of these gurriers, because you just know the cousins, brothers, uncles, nephews are likely on the very same path.

I wouldn’t put the onus fully on the parents to start with, they may be even victims of their own children themselves.

More agencies need to be involved when behaviour that had gone out of control has serious consequences. This is not just about talking things through and offering an apology as if little Johnny accidentally damaged the neighbour’s roses (apologies are worthless and not a free pass to put behind you long term consequences that are still affecting other people). Some reparation work needs to take place also.

I never said an apology would be 'enough'.... I repeatedly said it would be a start.

I'm not sure why you are saying I am 'not more clued up than the parents of these kids'... I have two teenagers and I would know if they were not in the house at night time. I have a Family Link on our phones which shows their location at all times. I pay for their phones and they know that the phones will be locked by me if there were any problems that warranted it. To date there hasn't been any issues.

My kids and I talk regularly - they know right from wrong.

These kids were posting on tiktok about stealing cars, speeding, racing from Guards, etc....did their parents not seeing these prolific posts? Or be made aware of these posts by anyone in their community?

No easy answers but without accountability we'll have similar stories in the weeks, months and years ahead.

FFS would you like me to draw a diagram. They were in a stolen BMW on the wrong side of the motorway. One of them was involved in incident on M50 previous week and all the media focus that got.
No more understanding needed. Some replies here show how they get away with all this as everything can be justified and explained away in their favour.

Good for you and your children that have grown up in a supportive environment but honestly op not all kids are that privileged and no parent can claim to know what their children are up to most of the time. What I am trying to say here is don’t judge other parents you know nothing about, they may be trying very hard (or not), they may be just like you or they may be probably be shocked at finding out that the teens they thought they had raised well have done or being doing something very stupid while parents thought they were out having fun with other nice kids they felt they could trust.

Even if they are in the wrong

If they are in the wrong? They were on the wrong side of the motorway. How much more wrong could they be?

And that's without considering whether the car was stolen, whether the driver was legally able to drive, and whether this was a repeat offence by some of them, none of which I think has been officially confirmed or denied yet.

Yes teenagers have died, but what about the other injured victims on their way to the airport, a 7 year old boy is seriously injured. All these boys in the car were wearing balaclavas, they terrorise people and are known as the “lucky dip” gang for robbing houses.

Their parents will blame anyone but themselves,

I don't know.. but that's what needs to happen if we are going to move on from prejudice. I've debated this over and over with my DS, I tell him stereotypes and sweeping statements are wrong, there is more good than evil, often those within the community are greater victims that those outside, intergenerational trauma, oppression, deep rooted customs etc etc. And each time he says well why aren't they trying to reform from within, why aren't they condemning their own, that's the only way to gain respect. I am getting tired of defending it because although I hate to admit it I'm starting to share his views. The community has to self police and stop seeing majority culture as the enemy, the authorities have got to stop being afraid of racism accusations and deal with the individuals as they would any other race. We as a whole need to help and support the next generation who are vulnerable to following the pattern. It's complex and difficult and I think we don't discuss it enou

I'm normally really sympathetic with the stupid teenagers thing.

But how can you consider that driving a stolen car on the wrong side of the motorway as only "if they in the wrong"?

Trite comments such as can be discussed later or now's not the time doesn't do anything to address what's happening until there's another similar incident whatever it may be because it will only get a token reference and nothing will be done.

You know this? No, you do not.

It is what they always do. Only recently the motorway was held up because of a funeral of one of these people with no regards to the rest of the country going about their business. This is their MO. You can see it on social media since yesterday.

You don't know the parents so you don't know what they have done, in fact.