Social media platforms face public ire after fatal crash involving teenagers filming themselves driving on wrong side

Videos often begin with the camera panning across a glowing dashboard as a gloved hand starts the ignition. The camera turns to show figures with masked faces in the rear seat, who are also filming, and swivels back to show the windscreen. Beyond it, a dark cityscape.

The engine throbs, headlights puncture the night and the journey begins, first down a suburban road, then a motorway. The speedometer shows acceleration, the needle juddering as the car gathers velocity.

The destination is irrelevant, for this is a show – an exhibition of audacity, lawlessness and recklessness that draws viewers to TikTok and other social media platforms with the possibility of chases by police and dramatic crashes.

Such videos are part of a macabre trend that has astonished and outraged Ireland in the wake of a collision last week that killed five teenagers – who were driving the wrong way down a motorway – and critically injured a family of four, prompting debate about policing, criminal justice, social services and social media regulation.

“ You have to ask: how do five young men gravitate to each other and decide this is a good idea? ” said Graham Kavanagh, a former officer with the police force An Garda Síochána, who used to pursue car thieves.

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