BENTON COUNTY, Iowa — A Vinton mother of five is being remembered for her kindness and generosity after a tragic crash last Friday afternoon on U.S. Highway 218.

According to the Iowa State Patrol, 37-year-old Crystal Offerman was driving her Jeep Wrangler and stopped to make a turn near 61st Street when her vehicle was rear-ended by a Vinton–Shellsburg school bus. The impact pushed her Jeep into oncoming traffic, where it collided head-on with another vehicle. Offerman was airlifted to the University of Iowa Hospitals, but later died from her injuries.

No one else was injured in the crash. The bus was carrying six students at the time, and the other driver — identified as 34-year-old Josh Hopkins of Cedar Rapids — was also unharmed.

In the days following the crash, friends and family h

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