A sophomore nursing student at Hinds Community College died Wednesday night after her car was hit by an 18-wheeler on U.S. 61 North and Bowie Road.

Savanah Mignon Belgard, 19, 277 Rolling Hills Blvd., Florence, was entering the highway from Bowie at 8:19 p.m. when the Chrysler Cirrus she was driving was struck by a northbound 18-wheeler at the intersection, Mississippi Highway Patrolman John Minor said.

Belgard was pronounced dead by Warren County Coroner John Thomason at River Region Medical Center. Thomason said he ordered an autopsy to be performed at Mississippi Mortuary Services in Pearl, but was uncertain whether it would be complete today.

There is a traffic light at the busy junction, installed after previous wrecks where the four-lane highway has a T-intersection with a road leading to large residential areas of the county.

The driver of the rig, Robert E. Brown Jr., 54, 5939 Jeff Davis Road, told troopers at the scene that he tried to avoid Belgard’s vehicle by veering left but the car &#8220kept coming,” Minor said. Belgard’s vehicle was pushed approximately 80 yards.

Brown was released from River Region Medical Center, a hospital spokesman said.

Belgard had just left the Openwood Plantation home of Susan Kittrell, 18, the student with whom she planned to room at Hinds Community College’s campus in Raymond.

They had been friends for about the last two or three months, Kittrell said.

&#8220She was the most beautiful person inside and out that I have ever met in my entire life,” Kittrell said this morning. &#8220She was an awesome person and an awesome friend,” she said.

&#8220She was loved by all her friends and we won’t forget her,” said Lucas Adams, 20, of Vicksburg, Belgard’s boyfriend and fellow student at Hinds Community College in Raymond.

An employee of Little Caesar’s in Clinton, Belgard was headed to a relative’s home in Florence when the wreck occurred.

The accident was the fifth fatal wreck in Warren County in 2006. Funeral arrangements had not been completed.