Boat passenger still in hospital after Friday night crash on Lake Michigan

One woman remains hospitalized in serious condition with internal injuries following a weekend boat crash on Lake Michigan near Fort Sheridan, police officials said Monday.

John Tannahill, chief of the Lake County Forest Preserve District's ranger police force, said the unidentified woman is on a ventilator at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He said she is suffered broken ribs and lung damage during the Friday night crash.

Tannahill said police are still investigating the crash, and charges could be filed by the Lake County States Attorney's Office against the male boat driver by Friday.

"She definitely has some healing to do," he said. "We are awaiting the results of the investigation and will move forward from there."

Police have said alcohol seemed to have played a part in the boat crash after a 23-foot pleasure craft smacked into a sea wall about 10:40 p.m. on Lake Michigan's shoreline at Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve near Highland Park.

Tannahill said the boat operator, a 51-year-old man who will remain unidentified until after charges are filed, told officers he had run over a steel breakwater near the forest preserve.

Police rescued the group after another boater saw the boat in distress and sent up a flare, Tannahill said. A ranger on patrol in the forest preserve saw the flare and raced to the beach, where he waded into the lake and towed the boat with all three people on board to shore, Tannahill said.

All three people in the boat - the driver, and two women, ages 50 and 53 - initially were taken to Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital for treatment of lacerations and internal injuries. The woman now in serious condition was transferred to Northwestern's larger trauma center in Chicago.

Tannahill said the boat driver and the third women were treated and released Friday.

Tannahill said Lake County prosecutors are waiting for blood-alcohol tests conducted on the male driver at the hospital. The boat remains in possession of forest preserve district police.