Five teens killed in wrong-way M9 crash, family injured

Five teenage boys were killed and four members of a family were seriously injured in a head-on collision on the M9 motorway in County Kildare, Ireland, in the early hours of Sunday, August 16, 2026. The crash occurred at approximately 3:00 a.m. on the northbound carriageway between Junctions 3 and 4, near Moone, when a BMW traveling the wrong way collided with a Hyundai.

The five teenagers in the BMW died at the scene. They were later named as Jeremy O'Brien, 18, and Alex McCarthy, 17, both from Carlow; Joey Carthy, 15, and Jack Kennedy, 17, both from Athy, County Kildare; and Kamil Pustkowski, 17, from Limerick. The four occupants of the Hyundai, an extended family from Carlow, were en route to Dublin Airport for a flight to the United Kingdom for a wedding. The driver, a woman aged 40, and a front-seat passenger in her 30s were taken to Tallaght University Hospital, where they remain in critical condition. A rear-seat passenger, a woman in her 20s, was initially taken to St. Luke's General Hospital in Kilkenny in serious condition before being moved to St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin. A 7-year-old boy, also a rear-seat passenger, is being treated at Children's Health Ireland...