STEARNS COUNTY, Minn. — A man on a jet ski was pulling two kids on a tube when it struck a dock, injuring the children this past weekend in central Minnesota.
Court documents show that Ryan James Willis, 42, of St. Joseph, was charged Monday in Stearns County with two felony counts of criminal vehicular operation and a misdemeanor DWI.
On Saturday, July 8, shortly after 4:30 p.m., Stearns County Sheriff's deputies responded to a watercraft accident on Watab Lake in St. Wendel Township, according to the criminal complaint.
One 9-year-old boy was taken to St. Cloud Hospital with concussion symptoms and the other 9-year-old boy was airlifted to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis with a reported "skull fracture with a large laceration to the right side of his head, a bruised right lung, and bruising on the right side of his body."
When deputies interviewed Willis he said he was driving the jet ski too close to shore when the tube slammed into the neighbor's dock.
One of the deputies said he could smell a strong odor of alcohol coming from Willis and he showed signs of impairment during field sobriety testing, the complaint said.
Willis admitted to consuming alcohol, according to the complaint.
A preliminary breath test showed Willis had an alcohol concentration of .148. The legal limit in Minnesota is .08 blood alcohol content (BAC).
The deputies conducted a blood test, the results of which are pending.
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