Wrong-Way Driver Led to a Traffic Fatality in Linn County

A wrong way driver in Linn County led to a traffic fatality Friday night in Linn County. According to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, deputies, along with Linn County Sheriff’s Rescue, Marion Police Officers, Marion Fire Department, Area Ambulance, and Iowa Department of Transportation responded just before 10pm Friday night to a report of vehicle collision involving a wrong-way driver on Highway 13 near Travis Road.

Responders arrived to find two vehicles had collided in the northbound lanes of Highway 13 just north of Travis Rd. A 2003 Saturn with three occupants was northbound on Highway 13 and collided with a 2010 Honda CRV. One of the passengers, identified as 18-year old Yoseph Wendafrash Abera of Somerset New Jersey, was ejected from the vehicle during the collision and was pronounced dead at the scene. The other two occupants, driver 27-year-old Barnabas Destahun of Marion and passenger 20-year old Natnael Wendafrash Abera of Highland Park New Jersey, were transported to an area hospital with serious but non life-threatening injuries. The driver of the Honda, 32-year old Katie Marie Austin Karkow of rural Cedar Rapids, the only occupant, had to be extricated by mechanical means from the vehicle. The driver was taken to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries. A third vehicle then became involved in the crash, the occupants of that vehicle were uninjured.  The names of the injured and the dead are withheld at this time pending notification of family. The crash remains under investigation by the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.