JET-SKI users should be trained and craft should be registered due to safety risks, according to the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB).
The board made the recommendation in its report into the death of a Co Mayo man, Patrick O’Haire, who had used a jet-ski on Lough Mask on May 9th, 2007.
Mr O’Haire and his friend, Shane Mulroe, were wearing wet suits and buoyancy aids, and both began to swim ashore when their jet-skis broke down. However, Mr O’Haire did not make it, and his body was recovered the next day.
The report found that both men had little or no training with jet-skis.
Both craft were in “extremely poor” mechanical condition, and the pair had ventured out in bad weather and poor light.
It noted that people in difficulty in water were advised to stay with their craft as this gave the best chance of survival.
The Lough Mask investigation is the latest in a series of inquiries into jet-ski accidents undertaken by the MCIB.
Last December, in a report into the serious injury of a jet-skier in Connemara in October 2006, it said the Government should consider mandatory training for jet-ski users.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s annual fundraising “SOS” day yesterday included an unusual exhibit at its Galway station.
A Morris Minor car owned by the late Paul Tonge is to be raffled to raise funds for the station.
The car was donated by the families of Mr Tonge and Margaret Kilgarriff, who died in a ferry disaster off Sumatra in Indonesia on January 19th, 1996.