A Belfast man who was seriously injured in a jet-ski accident at Mullaghamore, Co Sligo, at the weekend died yesterday in Sligo General Hospital. He was Mr Glen O'Hare (19), from Oakhurst Avenue.
Mr O'Hare had been on a life-support machine since the accident shortly after 9.30 p.m. on Sunday. He sustained injuries when the jet-ski he was riding, which was also pulling another youth on water skis, collided with a pleasure boat in Mullaghamore harbour. Locals carried him from the water and he was ferried to hospital by ambulance.
Meanwhile, one person is in the intensive care unit of Mullingar Hospital following an accident involving a speedboat and a swimmer in Lough Leen, Co Westmeath, on Sunday evening.
The victim, a 27-year-old Co Meath man, was windsurfing on the lake with a companion and decided to swim back to the shore, a distance of 500 metres, to pick up a boat.
While he was swimming ashore, he was struck by a speedboat which was towing a water skier. He was rushed by the boat-owner to the hospital where his injuries were described as "serious but not life-threatening".
The hospital had also to deal with two other victims of watersports accidents on Sunday evening. A man fell from a jet-ski and suffered injuries, as did a water skier on an adjoining lake.
A Garda source said there were well over 2,000 people in the Lough Leen area on Sunday and there was a great deal of congestion.