Nicole Elizabeth Styer
A 21-year-old Maytown woman was killed in a one-car wreck on Route 230 in northwestern Lancaster County on Tuesday night.
It appeared that Nicole Elizabeth Styer was driving a 1995 Volkswagen convertible south on North Market Street (Route 230) at 9 p.m. when it left the road just north of Cedar Road in West Donegal Township, Northwest Regional police said.
The vehicle went up an embankment on the western side of the road and struck several trees, police said. The vehicle then slid back across the road to the east side and came to rest on its roof in front of 1945 N. Market St.
Styer, who was ejected from the vehicle, was pronounced dead at the scene by Deputy Coroner David Schmidt, police said.
Styer was a 2008 graduate of Donegal High School, where she was involved in the drama club. She was studying elementary education at Penn State University, according to her grandmother, Grace "Meme" Styer, 67, of Columbia.
"She was a sweet kid," Grace Styer said. "She always had a smile on her face and was full of life."
Teaching was Nicole Styer's lifelong goal, said her mother, Tracy Portner.
"She had two lifelong dreams," Portner said. "One was to be an elementary teacher, and the other was to get her degree from Penn State. She was pursing both those dreams, and we were so very proud of her accomplishments."
Nicole Styer had "a year and a half" until graduation, her mother said.
Nicole Styer had just celebrated her birthday on Christmas.
Northwest Regional police ask anyone with information about the crash to call them at 367-8481.
Nicole Styer is the fourth young person to die on the sweeping curve on Route 230/North Market Street since 2002, newspaper records show. The area is designated a high-crash zone. All the fatalities happened in single-car nighttime crashes and involved drivers in their 20s. Several years ago, the state Department of Transportation reportedly lowered the speed limit from 55 mph to 45 mph after a request from police.
