Authorities say an off-duty Cloquet police officer was drunk when his pickup truck crossed the centerline on Minnesota Highway 33 and struck an oncoming vehicle on March 5, killing both drivers.
The Minnesota State Patrol reported Tuesday that testing conducted by the St. Louis County medical examiner showed that Mark Laine, 49, of Saginaw had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.178 percent at the time of the crash - more than twice the legal limit.
Laine was a Cloquet Police Department corporal and a 27-year veteran of the force. Minnesota court records show that Laine had a previous drunken-driving conviction, in 2003.
Alcohol was not found in the system of the other driver, Fay Dahlman, 54, of Alborn, a longtime nurse at Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet.
The crash was reported just after 11 p.m. March 5 on Highway 33 near North Road, the Patrol said. Laine was traveling northbound when his Ford pickup crossed the centerline and struck a southbound Hyundai Santa Fe driven by Dahlman.
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Laine was taken to Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet, where he was pronounced dead. Dahlman died at the scene.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Dahlman was wearing a seat belt; Laine was not, the Patrol reported.
There were no passengers in either vehicle. The accident occurred in the northern part of Cloquet, where Highway 33 is a four-lane, undivided road.
The Patrol reported Tuesday that its investigation and reconstruction of the crash is ongoing.
A message left at the Cloquet Police Department seeking comment Tuesday was not returned. A member of Dahlmanâs family declined to comment on the information released Tuesday.
