The family of a woman who died when a car being chased by gardaí crashed into her were “quite amazed” at garda admissions of the lack of relevant training and knowledge the gardaí in the chase had of high speed pursuits.

Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Stuart Gilhooly, the solicitor for the family of Diana Harton, said that he and the family were “quite amazed at the admissions that the gards made about the lack of training and the lack of knowledge they had of garda pursuits.”

“The degree to which they admitted they really didn’t have a clue what they were doing, or what they were supposed to be doing, was stunning,” he said.

On October 23 2014 Diana Harton was killed when a car being chased by gardaí crashed into her on the M7. The man driving the car, John Joyce, was drinking while at the wheel and had taken drugs. Ms Harton died almost instantly when the car she was in was struck by Joyce's Volkswagen Polo, which was carrying five men. 

During the inquest into Ms Harton’s death, gardaí have admitted the officers involved in the chase were not adequately trained for undertaking a high-speed chase, and there was a serious failure of planning for such an incident.

A Garda inspectorate report dated in 2008, found that approximately 2600 gardai were then operating vehicles ‘on chief’s permission’ – meaning they have not completed a driving course but operate their vehicles with flashing lights under a dispensation.

The jury at the Coroner's Court yesterday recommended that a review into pursuit procedures should be held, with Superintendent Martin Walker telling the Court he understands one has already begun.

The lack of individual training was just one element of garda shortcomings that shocked the victim’s family, with a lack of planning and communication at a higher level also contributing to the problems.

“There is a Garda Siochána code which directs how pursuits are to be handled,” Mr Gilhooly said. 

Garda car chases are supposed to be controlled from the patrol room of the controlling garda station, however with the gardaí involved in the chase split between two stations there was no communication between the two patrol rooms. There was also no attempt made the block off slip roads, an act which could have potentially prevented the crash that killed Ms Harton.

“There doesn’t seem to be any sort of system in place to deal with motorways,” Mr Gilhooly said. “It needs to be completely overhauled and that was one of the recommendations of the jury yesterday.

There was also confusion over the use of the garda helicopter and deployment of stinger devices to slow the car being pursued.

“They didn’t engage the helicopters at all,” Mr Gilhooly said.

“(There was) no system in place to deploy stinger devices. It was shambolic the way they operated the stinger device. Nobody even seemed to know who had the stinger device.”

A lack of resources is cited by gardaí as the main reason so few have undergone the necessary driving training, with most stations unable to spare staff for the three week course in the Phoenix Park.

“I was embarrassed for the gardaí through the entire inquest,” Mr Gilhooly said.

“It was almost anapathy to some degree, or maybe it was weariness... I think they’re probably sick of it themselves.”

Listen to the full Breakfast interview with Stuart Gilhooly below