Published: 22:13 BST, 29 August 2026 | Updated: 22:13 BST, 29 August 2026
The mother of the Limerick teen killed in the M9 horror crash has revealed that she pleaded with the State child and family agency Tusla to take her son into care.
‘I was dealing with Tusla for over a year,’ Emilia Pustkowska, whose son Kamil, 17, was one of five youths killed in the head-on motorway collision, told the Irish Mail on Sunday. ‘I didn’t find them very helpful.’
In an exclusive MoS interview last weekend, Ms Pustkowska revealed how her son, who had been diagnosed with autism, was bullied and assaulted in attacks that left him hospitalised.
She also described her desperate appeals to a judge for her son to be placed in custody after he had pleaded guilty to some offences just weeks before the fatal M9 crash – but the case was adjourned due to the solicitors’ strike.
Now she has described a similarly futile engagement with Tusla in the past year-and-a-half.
‘Their only advice was to “keep him at home so he will be safe”. I said: “I’m not able to keep him home safe, because he is twice [as big as] me.” I said: “What do you want me to do – tie him up, use force?” They [Tusla] said: “No, no, no – you can’t do that. That’s child abuse.”’
Kamil Pustowski, 17, was one of five youths killed in a head-on motorway collision in Kildare
The family’s first engagement with Tusla was in March 2025, after Kamil got drunk in class and the school and gardaí contacted the agency.
However, Kamil refused to attend any meetings with Tusla.
Unable to compel him to attend, his mother met the Tusla staff on her own and asked them to come to her home to see Kamil.
But this never happened, and all contact thereafter was by phone – culminating in a final call the Thursday before the fatal events unfolded on the M9.
This call was prompted by Ms Pustkowska’s pleas before the Children’s Court in late July, where she expressed fears for the safety of her son and asked for him to be detained.
The scene of the fatal collision on the M9 in Kildare
Ms Pustkowska said she came up against a brick wall during her last call with Tusla staff.
