Two children were seriously hurt Sunday evening when a towable tube carrying four kids collided with an unoccupied boat on Big Kandiyohi Lake, according to the sheriff's office. A pontoon boat had been pulling the tube near docks on the lake's northwest side, off 126th Avenue SE in Fahlun Township, when the crash happened around 6:34 p.m. The other two children on the tube were not hurt.
Emergency responders were called to the docks in Fahlun Township following the collision, as reported by CBS News Minnesota. Two children suffered injuries the sheriff's office said were not considered life-threatening, and both were taken to CentraCare hospital in Willmar for treatment. Big Kandiyohi Lake sits about 100 miles west of Minneapolis, and the sheriff's office said the crash remains under investigation.
Life Jackets Credited With Limiting Harm
All four children on the tube were wearing life jackets at the time of the crash, the sheriff's office said. That detail lines up with Minnesota boating regulations, which require any child under 10 to wear a U.S. Coast Guard–approved life jacket while aboard a moving watercraft, according to SafeBoatingAmerica.com. The requirement is credited with helping prevent more serious harm in incidents like this one.
Big Kandiyohi Lake covers roughly 2,683 acres with a maximum depth of 18 feet and includes public county parks with boat access on both its eastern and western shores, per Willmar Lakes Area. The lake sits about 18 miles south of Willmar and roughly 4 miles northwest of Lake Lillian, making it a popular summer destination for boaters and families in Kandiyohi County.
What Minnesota Law Requires of Boaters Towing Riders
Minnesota Statute 86B.315 requires anyone operating a watercraft to tow a person on a tube or water skis to either have a second person aboard continuously watching the rider or a wide-angle rearview mirror installed on the boat, according to the Office of the Revisor of Statutes. The same statute also bars towing anyone on a tube or skis from one hour after sunset until sunrise the next day. It remains unclear whether the pontoon operator had an observer or mirror in place, and the exact speed and visibility conditions at the time of the crash have not been detailed publicly.
It also has not been established whether the unoccupied boat was anchored near a designated dock or adrift in open water when the tube struck it. Those questions are expected to factor into the sheriff's office investigation into the crash.
Statewide Context on Boating Safety
The crash comes as Minnesota has phased in expanded boater safety rules. Effective July 1, anyone born after June 30, 2000, must obtain a watercraft operator permit before running a motorized boat, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. State boating fatalities and non-fatal incidents have both trended downward recently, with 35 non-fatal incidents and 7 fatalities recorded in 2025, down from 50 non-fatal incidents and 9 fatalities in 2024, per DNR data.
The DNR has also said alcohol is involved in roughly 30 percent of fatal boating accidents statewide, making impaired operation the leading contributing factor in the most severe watercraft incidents. Minnesota law bars operating a watercraft with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or higher.
A Lake With a History of Water Emergencies
This is not the first time emergency crews have responded to trouble on Big Kandiyohi Lake. In November 2024, responders rescued a hunter whose boat sank amid 30 mph wind gusts, and in August 2019 an anchored sailboat capsized during a thunderstorm, according to KARE 11. Kandiyohi County Sheriff's deputies and local rescue squads routinely respond to lake emergencies in Fahlun Township.
CentraCare's Willmar hospital, located about 18 miles north of the lake, serves as the primary emergency care destination for water accidents in Kandiyohi County. The sheriff's office has not released further updates on the condition of the two children still being treated there, and the investigation into Sunday's crash continues.
