Gardaí investigatinga crash on the M50 which hospitalised nine people on Sunday believe video footage on the phones of some of the teenagers involved may be key to their investigation.The Toyota Yaris in the incident had been stolen from the Rathmines area and was spotted by gardaí in several parts of south and west Dublin on Sunday morning.Eight teenagers were in the five-seater car when it crashed into another car while driving the wrong way down the M50 at 5.30am. It is understood the vehicle was travelling above the 100km/h speed limit on the road.It is believed that some of the occupants of the stolen vehicle may have recorded parts of the journey. A total of nine people, including the eight teenage boys, were hospitalised following the collision. There are grave concerns around the health of one of the teenagers (13) who is in a critical condition. The State’s policing watchdog has launched a mandatory independent investigation into the incident.Fiosrú is legally required to investigate all incidents in which gardaí were in contact with individuals who then died or were seriously injured.Gardaí were aware of the vehicle, which had been seen driving around the city and it had failed to stop for gardaí before it went on to the M50, a senior Garda source said.The two gardaí, from a west Dublin Garda station, were instructed not to chase the car before it went on to drive the wrong way down the major motorway.Gardaí responded to the incident within minutes of the crash.A Garda source said it appears some thieves have realised that dangerous driving practises can result in gardaí being forced to abandon chases.The gardaí in the patrol car were only qualified to engage in routine, non-emergency driving having only received their competency based driving (CBD) level 1 certification.This certification is the lowest grade of the five-level suite of CBD qualifications. The next level requires gardaí to perform a two-week training course. The driver of a second car, a man aged in his 20s, was hospitalised for serious injuries.“My child is alive. He is lucky. But someone has to face consequences,” Sara Jane Fox, the mother of the driver of the other car, told the Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s Red FM on Tuesday morning.Her son, Craig, an electrical apprentice, was hit head on by the stolen vehicle.He “walked out” of the car after the crash, Fox said, and called her from a Garda’s phone. She said her son is “up and talking”, but may never get back behind the wheel of a car again.This article was updated on August 11th, 2026