Man dies after falling from boat, driver arrested

Published 10:28 pm Thursday, September 21, 2017

KABETOGAM — An Illinois man has been arrested in northeastern Minnesota where he’s accused of driving a boat while intoxicated which resulted in the death of a passenger.

St. Louis County Sheriff’s officials said 66-year-old Wlodzimierz Dziechciowski of Chicago fell out of a boat on Lake Kabetogama in Voyageurs National Park Wednesday afternoon when its driver struck a wave. Sheriff’s dispatchers got a 911 call that he had fallen out of the boat and was unconscious.

The boat’s driver, a 55-year-old Harwood Heights, Illinois man, along with a passer-by pulled him out of the water and took him to the Park Point Resort where they were met by paramedics. Dziechciowski was pronounced dead at the scene.

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The boat’s operator was taken into custody on a possible charge of criminal vehicular operation resulting in death.