Hooded and masked, the driver speeds forward, weaving from side to side as he dodges oncoming traffic.

Driving the wrong way down the road, he narrowly misses several head-on collisions before the camera pans to a speedometer reading 187km/h (116mph).

The death of five teenagers in a horror motorway crash at 3am on Sunday has shed light on a notorious gang of youths terrorising Ireland’s roads.

The teens, aged between 15 and 18, were in a BMW driving against traffic on the M9 in Co Kildare when they slammed into an oncoming car, killing them instantly and seriously injuring three sisters and a seven-year-old boy travelling in the other vehicle.

One of the deadliest road accidents in recent Irish history, the crash has been linked to the ‘Lucky Dip’ gang, who are also believed to be behind the 116mph rampage described above.

The group, made up of youngsters from deprived estates in Dublin and other Irish cities, steals vehicles before filming dangerous joyrides and posting the footage on social media in a bid to rack up likes and views.

Two hours before Sunday’s crash, Gardaí – Irish police – were alerted to reports that a group of masked men were trying to break into cars in the nearby town of Athy.

When officers arrived at the scene, a BMW sped past them before joining the M9 motorway on the wrong side of the carriageway. Inside were Joey Carthy, 15, Jeremy O’Brien, 18, and 17-year-olds Jack Kennedy, Alex McCarthy and Kamil Pustkowski.

Officers were ordered not to chase the vehicle and instead planned to deploy a stinger device at the next exit. 

But before they could intervene, the BMW slammed into a Hyundai carrying Ellie Hendricken, sisters Alma and Niamh Kinsella, and the boy – a child of one of the women. All four remain in a critical condition in hospital.

A photo shared on a social media page of one of the teenagers involved 

A TikTok video posted by Mr Pustkowski showing other members of the gang

Kamil Pustkowski, one of the five teenagers killed on the M9 on Sunday, had posted videos of himself in police chases 

In these videos, he would boast that he was outrunning the pursuing police officers 

A video showing a man driving at 187km/h (116mph) the wrong way down a road 

The Lucky Dip gang are believed to have emerged in Dublin and take their name from the way they descend on areas at random to steal cars. 

They have been linked to incidents dating back to 2022, including the ramming of a police car in Cherry Orchard – which saw a 15-year-old boy jailed for 11 months. 

The gang were linked to around 300 incidents last year, including robberies and burglaries as well as car thefts.

Internal police figures seen by RTE showed that 11 active members of the gang had been charged a combined total of 427 times, an average of 39 times each. The average age of those identified was 16.

While it is not known if all five teenagers involved in Sunday’s crash were formal Lucky Dip members, at least three of them had boasted online about driving against traffic to evade police, and some had written ‘Lucky Dip Gang’ on their social media profiles.

In a clip posted on TikTok, Kamil Pustkowski can be seen playing loud music and shouting as he films the reflection in his wing mirror, which shows the flashing blue lights of a police car chasing after him.

Pustkowski is heard saying ‘That’s a sick video, boys’ as he attempts to escape the pursuing Garda. The video is captioned: ‘They got rammed get up. Cupra smoked,’ which is slang for ‘we escaped’.

In a separate post, the teenager can be seen shakily filming his dashboard as the speedometer needle climbs steadily higher.

And in other footage, Pustkowski films through the rear windscreen of a car as police again give chase with flashing blue lights. The video is captioned: ‘No panic zone here.’

Five teenage boys, all wearing balaclavas, were killed in the head-on collision as they drove south up the northbound carriageway on the M9 in County Kildare, Ireland

Mr Pustkowski was one of five teenagers to die in the collision

Joey Carthy also died in the crash on the M9 motorway. He is pictured in a social media tribute 

Security sources told how youngsters were trying to ‘outdo’ each other by posting increasingly dangerous videos on social media. 

‘These young guys have been terrorising communities for weeks, if not longer,’ a source told the Daily Mail.

‘They go out and target cars they believe don’t have immobilisers and then go out joyriding.

‘Most of the time they were wearing masks or balaclavas but at times they’d show their faces. They did not care if they were caught as they knew they were underage and that there was little the court system could do to them.’

The source added: ‘I want to be clear here. These lads were not the only ones who have done things of this nature.

‘It’s becoming a growing social media trend and it’s been a nightmare for gardaí to police because they are often ordered to stand down from pursuits because of the danger that chasing these guys could pose to the public.

‘It’s a no-win situation for Gardaí here and now four innocent people are fighting for their lives because of this recklessness.’

Incidents linked to or inspired by the Lucky Dip Gang are becoming increasingly common.  

The weekend before this latest crash, nine people were injured in a head-on collision on the M50 in Dublin after a car travelled in the wrong direction on the motorway.

Alex McCarthy was one of the five boys who died in the collision in County Kildare on Sunday morning

Jeremy O’Brien’s cousin wrote in tribute: ‘RIP to my cousin. [He] was like a brother. [May] God give you the bed in heaven, you’ll be missed’

Left to right: Ella Hendricken, Niamh Kinsella and Alma Kinsella, who all sustained catastrophic injuries after a crash on an Irish motorway that killed five teenage boys ‘who boasted about joyriding days before smash’

In a statement following the multiple fatalities, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said on Sunday: ‘My thoughts are with those injured in this morning’s collision on the M9.

‘These family members were travelling innocently when they were struck by a vehicle being driven the wrong way down the motorway.

‘This horrific incident, following the recent collision on the M50, shows how irresponsible and dangerous driving on the wrong side of the motorway is.

‘That, of course, should be self-evident, but what makes this reckless behaviour even more appalling is that in some cases it is being done for social media likes, regardless of the potentially devastating impact it might have on innocent people and the drivers themselves.’