FORWARD TWP — A violent head-on crash on a winding, country road killed a Butler County Community College nursing student Tuesday morning, one day before her 21st birthday.

Randi Lynn Klingensmith, 20, of Evans City died when her 2000 Plymouth Neon collided with a box truck on Brownsdale Road, just east of Glade Run Road.

State police continue to investigate the 8:30 a.m. accident.

County Coroner William Young IIIpronounced Klingensmith dead at the scene. He said she died of head, chest and other injuries. An autopsy was not done.

At least one witness believed the car, traveling west and going downhill on Brownsdale Road, possibly was going too fast when it crossed a double yellow line into the path of the eastbound 1993 Ford 350 truck headed uphill.

The collision spun the car around about 180 degrees, police said. Both vehicles were severely damaged.

Investigators did not rule out speed as a possible factor in the crash.

Klingensmith, who was not wearing a seat belt, was trapped inside her wrecked car. Penn Township volunteer firefighters had to pry open the car to free her.

"The car was completely crushed in the front,"said Philip Thackray, who lives at 641 Brownsdale Road, not far from the crash site. "The car was almost unrecognizable. It looked really bad."

Thackray was at home working on his computer and did not see the crash.

"I heard it. It was a big bang," he said.Still, he initially believed what he heard was the slamming of a garage door.

Another motorist, an unidentified woman driving a minivan, stopped to help.

"She was trying to comfort the woman in the car,"Thackray said. "She was saying, 'An ambulance is on the way' and "Hang in there.'"

Paul R. McElhinny, 82, of Evans City, who was driving the truck, was out of his vehicle and walking around immediately after the accident. He, too, was not wearing a seat belt, police said.

Amedical helicopter was called to assist but was not needed. McElhinny was taken by ambulance to Butler Memorial Hospital to be checked out for injuries considered minor to moderate.

Penn Township and Evans City firefighters closed the opposite ends of Brownsdale Road to traffic. At least two troopers also arrived, followed later by state police accident reconstruction specialists.

Neighbors say crashes there aren't uncommon.

"There's a very dangerous turn where (Tuesday's accident) happened,"Thackray said. "It's the third bad accident there that I can remember."

In August 2000, a Zelienople woman going too fast lost control of her sport utility vehicle on that stretch of road, traveled through woods and between trees before ending in a pond. She was not hurt.

Several years later, a speeding car crashed near the same spot, taking out Thackray's mailbox.

A2005 graduate of Seneca Valley High School, Klingensmith attended Slippery Rock University for three semesters before transferring to BC3, where she was enrolled in the college's nursing program.

Friends were shocked by news of the deadly crash.

"Randi was a very nice, caring person,"said Josh Dubia of New Bethlehem, Clarion County, who met Klingensmith in August 2005 when the two were freshmen at SRU.

The two, he said, were part of a "tight pack of friends"during their brief time together at SRU.

"She had a great sense of humor and she'd go out of her way to make you feel better,"Dubia said. "Everyone who knew her, liked her. That's the kind of person she was."

Funeral arrangements are being completed by the Young Funeral Home, Butler.