Crash kills North Point student, 17

St. Mary's wreck claims young life

Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Nicole Pitonyak sings with the All-County Chorus. The 17-year-old was killed in a car crash Sunday. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

A Charles County teenager died Sunday, authorities report, when the car she was driving went off Route 5 in St. Mary's County's New Market community and struck a tree at high speed.

North Point High School student Nicole Yelena Pitonyak, 17, of Brandywine was pronounced dead at the scene of the 3:18 p.m. crash, the St. Mary's sheriff's office reports. A 16-year-old Waldorf girl riding as a passenger in the southbound 2004 Ford Focus was flown by a Maryland State Police helicopter crew to the Prince George's Hospital Center, where she was listed the next day in critical condition.

Two other vehicles switched from the highway's fast lane to the right lane to get out of the path of the speeding Ford car, police report, before it braked hard behind a pickup truck and swerved into the tree in the highway's median, near its intersection with Route 6.

Sheriff's deputies investigating the possibility that the car was drag racing one of the other vehicles determined that no such activity had occurred, and that the driver of that vehicle stopped to try to help the girls in the crashed car.

Pitonyak, a junior at North Point, was a singer for the All-County Chorus.

"She had a beautiful voice," said Kim Hill, the school's principal, adding that Pitonyak often sang the national anthem or other songs at community events.

Pitonyak was enrolled in the school's three-year cosmetology program, and she was about to become licensed, Hill said.

"The loss is devastating," Hill said. "The students are mourning, of course, and so are our staff members."

Hill said her students wrote letters and cards for Pitonyak's family on Monday, and the school is in the process of deciding how to commemorate her death.

"She had pizzazz," said Rachel Bigler, a North Point senior who sang on the choir with Pitonyak. "She had a tough exterior, but she was very nice to those she knew."

Bigler, 17, said Pitonyak worked at Studio Mirage Salon in Waldorf washing hair. "She definitely knew what she was doing," said Bigler, who had her hair done by Pitonyak several times.

Jen Nodianos, Pitonyak's choir director, said the 17-year-old was planning to use cosmetology to pay her way to Broadway, where she dreamed of becoming a performer.

"That was her goal," Nodianos said. "She certainly had the drive."

Nodianos said she and the choir members spent much of Monday talking about Pitonyak and looking at pictures and video clips from their past concerts.

"Most stayed with me the whole day. We just kind of relived Nicole the rest of the day," Nodianos said.

The choir members asked Pitonyak's parents if they could sing at her funeral, and Nodianos said they are glad of the opportunity to honor their friend's life.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call the St. Mary's sheriff's office at 301-475-4200, Ext. 9115.