teen
driving survey reveals ignorance and cavalier attitude of
teens towards safe driving....
Street
racing teen driver killed
Police identify dead girl;
Capt. John Horne says a second vehicle was involved in this and
police are looking for information....details coming on this
incident...
Deputies try to sort out details of this
latest case of street racing mania.
ST. MARY'S TODAY photo by
Matthew Ivancie
Nicole Yelena Pitonyak
NEW MARKET (Nov. 10, 2008)
UPDATE --- A street racing
teen died Sunday when the Ford Focus she was racing a silver car
on the southbound lanes of Rt. 5 left the roadway and
crashed into a tree in the median strip just before the
intersection of Rt. 5 and Rt. 6 at New Market.
A
witness told ST. MARY'S TODAY that two teenage girls in
the Ford took off from the intersection of Rt. 5 and
Golden Beach Road and went southbound in a speed contest
with another vehicle just prior to losing control and
crashing.
St. Mary's Sheriff's Deputy Cindy Allen reports that the
17-year-old driver,
Nicole Yelena Pitonyak
was from Brandywine and the 16-year-old passenger, who is still
alive, is from Waldorf.
Drag racing in Southern Maryland is nothing new with tragedy
visiting many area families as their loved ones use stupidity as
their guidepost for how to have fun.
8 morons standing
in the middle of Rt. 210 at Accokeek at 3 am, a 55
mph highway, in the pitch dark, were killed when a car not
involved in the street race mowed down these spectators last
January.
Another drag race with a teenage girl, Jessica Vallandingham,
who was racing another car operated by Steven Stewart, was
responsible in part for the death of 16-year-old Danny Gatton in
a street race wreck which took place at Laurel Grove in 2001,
just five miles from today's wreck. The Laurel Grove fatal
race wreck also crippled a driver hit by one of the illegal
street racers.
St. Mary's Sheriff Tim Cameron reports that the second vehicle
involved in Sunday's illegal street race did not crash and that
the surviving teen in the wrecked Ford is in critical condition.
"We believe that there are witnesses to this in the community
that can help us assemble all of the facts of what happened and
ask for them to contact us," said Sheriff Cameron.
Mechanicsville firefighters stand by while police reconstruct
the fatal wreck and the body of the dead driver awaits the
medical examiner.
ST. MARY'S TODAY photos by
Matthew Ivancie
More details and photos of the
deadly crash are developing....see this story on
NBC 4 News
Fox 5 News story
