Mother, son among 4 people killed in Cedar Rapids crash

CEDAR RAPIDS — Two of the four people killed Friday night in a two-vehicle crash in Cedar Rapids were a mother and her 13-year-old son, according to a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for the family.

The Cedar Rapids Police Department has not released the names of the four people killed in the crash, which occurred at 9:56 p.m. Friday near the intersection of C Street SW and Edison Road. An initial news release from police reported first responders were called to a two-vehicle crash with trapped occupants and one car on fire.

However, according to a GoFundMe page, Ruth Zewde Tekeste and her son, Bruk Yonas Mehari, died Friday in a car crash in Cedar Rapids. The page says the son was born in Cairo, Egypt, and he moved in 2014 with his parents to the United States.

As of Monday, the page had raised $13,288.

The Iowa Department of Transportation reported that as of Monday, 349 people have died this year in crashes on Iowa roads, an increase from recent years. According to the Iowa DOT, the average number of people killed in crashes by this time of the year for the last five years is 308.