An elderly couple from Cannon Falls, Minn., were identified Saturday as the victims who were killed when their car was broadsided by a State Patrol trooper who was heading to an injury accident Friday.
Driver Norman Scott, 78, and his wife Geneva, 79, died in the crash. The trooper, Scott Reps, suffered serious injuries and is being treated at a hospital in Rochester, according to the State Patrol.
The Scotts had lived in Cannon Falls for 30 years, according to their granddaughter, Jessica Schaffer. She said her family will remember her grandmother as a quiet and sweet woman who grew up in Cannon Falls and was active at First English Luthern Church.
Norman Scott was known to most people as "Shorty," Schaffer said. "I don't think most people knew what his real name was," she said. He grew up in Randolph and had dated Geneva in high school.
He later worked on the production floor at North Star Steel.
Shorty Scott was an avid gardener who sold flowers and produce every week at Cannon Falls' farmers market, Schaffer said. She recalled that he was extremely protective of his garden.
"None of us grandchildren were allowed to go into it until we were 5" years old, she said.
The accident occurred as Reps was responding to a collision between a deer and a motorcycle that had injured the rider. He was heading south on 65th Avenue when he got word of the crash near County Road 24, just south of the Cannon Falls town center.
Witnesses described hearing sirens and seeing the patrol car's lights. The couple pulled out of a parking lot and was hit on the driver's side, the patrol said.
The two cars spun and hit a third vehicle. The driver of that vehicle, Richard Groshong, 64, and a passenger, Patsy Groshong, 59, both of Marion, Iowa, were not injured, the patrol said.
Schaffer's mother, Debbie Erickson of Northfield, is the Scotts' only daughter. Schaffer said her parents were visiting her home this weekend in Spring Valley, Wis., when they were contacted by Northfield police and told of the accident.
Authorities said Friday they haven't determined the speed of the patrol car or fault for the accident.
Susan Feyder • 952-746-3282
