A Carver mayoral candidate and Lions Club president was seriously hurt Sunday when the golf cart he was driving was struck from behind by an alleged drunken driver.

Greg Osterdyk, 38, was in serious but stable condition Tuesday at Hennepin County Medical Center following the Sunday afternoon crash during the city's annual Steamboat Days festival, of which Osterdyk was chairman.

Cmdr. Jeff Enevold of the Carver County Sheriff's Office said medics and deputies were called to 320 Sixth St. W. in Carver, where they came upon a golf cart with rear end damage and a Toyota Camry on the other side of the road, also damaged. Witnesses told deputies that they saw the Camry speed past them before swerving across the road, striking the golf cart, swerving back and going into a ditch. Osterdyk was stopped in the golf cart talking to someone when it was struck.

Osterdyk, who was described as critically hurt, was taken to St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Shakopee before he was transferred to HCMC.

His passenger in the golf cart, Evelyn Grimm, 74, of Carver, was taken to Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia, where she was later released.

The driver of the car, a 46-year-old woman from Bemidji, also was taken to Ridgeview Medical Center and later released. Deputies discovered an open bottle of alcohol in the woman's car and took a urine sample from her. Charges against her may be filed pending the outcome of the test.

ABBY SIMONS