A passenger on a boat was tossed into the water and died when the drunken driver lost control on a lake in Voyageurs National Park, authorities said.
The incident occurred about 4:50 p.m. Wednesday on the western side of Lake Kabetogama in far northern Minnesota, according to the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office.
Wlodzimierz Dziechciowski, 66, of Chicago, died after falling from the 14-foot fishing boat, the Sheriff's Office said.
The boat's operator, Stanislaw Kozaczka, 55, of Harwood Heights, Ill., was suspected of being drunk and jailed in Hibbing on suspicion of criminal vehicular operation resulting in death.
Law enforcement said he smelled of alcohol, said Sheriff's Lt. Jason Akerson. "He admitted he had been drinking all day," the lieutenant added.
"It's too bad, people come up here for a good time and something like this happens," Akerson said.
Kozaczka told authorities that his boat struck the wake from another boat and the impact sent Dziechciowski into the water.
Kozaczka and a passerby pulled the unconscious Dziechciowski back into the boat and brought him to the Park Point Resort, the complaint said. Emergency personnel there began lifesaving efforts, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
