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MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2002

A Department of Interior employee with a record of driving under the influence of alcohol was involved in an accident in New Mexico, on Friday, killing two couples from Nebraska in a head-on collision.

Lloyd Larson, 39, was driving the wrong way on a stretch of highway running through the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. He survived the crash and had a blood alcohol level of 0.205, almost three times the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Arrested at least three times for DUI incidents, Larson was driving a Bureau of Indian Affairs truck. Press accounts do not state a position he may have held at BIA.

Killed in the crash were Larry and Rita Beller, ages 63 and 59, and Edward "Bud" and Alice Ramaekers, 61 and 60, Larson has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Larson is the second Interior employee involved in deadly accident. BIA criminal investigator was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing after his SUV dragged a Laguna Pueblo woman to death last September.

Get the Story:
Couples killed in New Mexico crash were longtime friends (The Omaha World-Herald 1/26)
Tests Show Driver Drunk in I-40 Crash, FBI Says (The Albuquerque Journal 1/26)

Related Stories:
Pueblo family forced to bury twice (1/28)
BIA officer being fined $46 for death (1/18)
N.M. woman killed in BIA accident (9/20)