Three injured in boat crash in northern Minnesota

Three people were injured — one seriously — early Saturday when a boat ran aground on an island on a northern Minnesota lake.

The St. Louis County Sheriff's Office reported that the crash happened at about 12:30 a.m. on Crane Lake in Voyageurs National Park.

Authorities said a mechanical problem on the 24-foot cuddy cabin-style boat caused the boat's spotlight to stop working in the vicinity of Indian Island, about 2 miles northeast of the community of Crane Lake.

"As the driver of the boat was attempting to slow the boat due to the loss of lighting, they struck the island causing the boat to come to rest well up on the rocky edge of the island," the sheriff's office reported in a news release.

A 60-year-old female passenger from Grasston, Minn., who was in the boat's cabin at the time of the crash, was seriously injured and transported to a Duluth hospital. The driver, a 37-year-old Minneapolis man, and a 65-year-old male passenger from Grasston suffered minor injuries.

"The cause of the crash remains under investigation ... but alcohol does not appear to be a factor," the sheriff's office reported.