ROCHESTER, Minn — A Chatfield driver was injured, albeit not seriously, in a two-vehicle collision on U.S. Highway 14 on the far eastern outskirts of Rochester. Peter Alan Ask, 84, who was driving a vintage 1951 Mercury coupe, was taken to a hospital. The other driver, Debra Marie Sutherland, 72, also of Chatfield, was unhurt. The vehicles, coming from opposite directions, collided at the light-controlled 50th Avenue Southeast intersection. This was about 11:50 a.m. Police aid Sutherland was belted in a 2013 Buick Enclave whose airbags deployed. Ask’s 74-year-old Mercury had neither seat belts nor airbags. Neither was offered in cars manufactured in 1951.
A crumpled classic now. This is what 1951 Mercury coupes looked like new.