Two college girls killed in coal train derailing

Officials stand near part of a CSX freight train that derailed overnight in Ellicott City, Md., Aug. 21, 2012. / AP Photo

Updated at 5:00 p.m. ET

(CBS/AP) ELLICOTT CITY, Md. - A train hauling coal derailed on a bridge in this city's historic district, killing two college students who had been drinking together and hanging out on the tracks. Nearly two dozen railroad cars flipped over, including some that fell onto vehicles in a parking lot below the bridge, officials said.

It appears the students, both 19, were crushed by falling coal which also toppled onto vehicles in a parking lot below the bridge, CBS Washington affiliate WNEW reports.

The two girls posted photos and comments from what appeared to be the bridge shortly before the train derailed around midnight Monday, according to Twitter feeds with the same names as the victims.

"Looking down on old ec," wrote Rose Louese Mayr, who posted an image of downtown Ellicott City.

Profile pictures from the Twitter accounts of Elizabeth Nass, left, and Rose Mayr. Both girls, 19, apparently tweeted about hanging out on a bridge before a coal train derailed.

/ Twitter/Personal Photo

Mayr was a student at the University of Delaware. She was killed along with her friend, Elizabeth Conway Nass, Howard County police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said. Nass attended James Madison University in Virginia.

"Drinking on top of the Ellicott City sign with @r0se-petals," wrote Nass, using her friend's Twitter name.

Another photo Mayr posted showed what appeared to be two women's legs dangling from a bridge. "Levitating," Mayr wrote.

Ellicott City is a picturesque small town where there are several bars, and gift and antique shops in converted old buildings. The railroad runs across Main Street in Ellicott City, about 13 miles west of Baltimore.

A person who answered the telephone at Nass' home declined to comment as did a family member who answered the phone at a number listed for the Mayr family.

Two train operators were not harmed. Officials had to use cranes to remove some of the railroad cars.

"Many of those train cars fell onto automobiles, literally fell onto automobiles with the coal," Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said. "So you have massive piles of coal and heavy train cars on top of automobiles."

Residents looked at the damage Tuesday morning and checked to see if their cars, or their friends' cars, had been damaged. Several gray train cars were still on the bridge while others could be seen derailed farther down the rail line. A number of cars were in a wooded area of the train track that runs along the Patapsco River.

Benjamin Noppenberger lives downtown and said he was getting ready for bed when he heard the derailment. He said he and his wife thought it sounded like gunshots and waited about 10 minutes to go outside. "We could see all the cars that fell over. I just saw catastrophe," he said.

Jill Farrell, a 35-year-old assistant professor who lives across the street from the tracks, said she heard what sounded liked squealing brakes and then a huge crash.

"It actually sounded like trains went off the tracks, and then silence," she said.

The tracks follow the route of the nation's first commercial railroad between Baltimore and Ellicott City, completed by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1830.

Young people often party in the nearby parking lot and often hang out on the tracks, despite fences around the area.

"It's just sort of a magnet for teenage high jinks," said Shelly Wygant of the Howard County Historical Society.

Jim Southworth, investigator in charge for the NTSB, declined to speculate on a possible cause. He said the train was going about 25 miles per hour and was equipped with video recording devices that investigators will review to help them determine what happened.

Southworth said the train had two locomotives, was 3,000-feet-long and weighed 9,000 tons.

About 100 pounds of coal spilled into a tributary of the Patapsco River, a major Maryland waterway that parallels the tracks, said Maryland Department of the Environment spokesman Jay Apperson. He said much more coal lay along the edge of the tributary, raising concerns it could boost the acidity of the water or threaten aquatic life.

CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan said that the train was traveling from Grafton, W.Va., to Baltimore.

[tmittelstaed]

We are going to see a lot more of these derailments. The problem is that highway construction and fuel are heavily subsidized by the government (the Iraq war was just one giant oil company subsidy) and that has the unintended consequence of making rail uneconomical for shipping anything that can possibly go by truck.

As a result railroads are reduced to hauling stuff like coal that is too heavy to be hauled any other way. (save by ship)

That has reduced rail traffic and as a result the railroads have been forced to close rail lines all over the country, and are concentrating rail traffic on fewer remaining lines, some of which date back 150 years ago. These lines wear out rapidly at bridge interconnects and siding switches, which is where most derailments happen.

This train didn't derail because it slammed on the brakes. It derailed because it was on top of several switches or rail sections of track that were worn out when it slammed on the brakes. That is probably why it was only going 25Mph in that section.

[gymmommd]

The train was going 25 miles in Ellicott City and thru Patapsco because the area is full of turns and narrow passages. The tracks go thru Patapsco State park. Ellicott City is mainly built into rock walls with the Patapsco River running thru town. The trains have to travel thru areas which are quite treacherous. And by the way the tracks they travel on do date back to the beginning of the B&O railway. So you are correct that in some areas they are extremely old.

[Stentor7]

I don't know where you grew up tmittelstaed, but news flash, coal has always been hauled by train, since ships, you know, can't sail over large portions of the interior of the country. Fuel is not highly subsidized, it's highly taxed, and those taxes are supposed to be going towards infrastructure maintenance & repair. A tractor hauling that much coal doesn't just slam on the brakes, they have to slow down gradually since they have several thousand tons of coal behind them, that's an incredibly large amount of kinetic energy that has to be overcome to slow its momentum.

[sobobx]

So tragic, so sad. Just enjoying their youth. Heartbreaking...

[Stentor7]

Go away newster, I seriously doubt you live in Beverly Hills. I grew up in a town that was founded because the railroads needed a crossing point, & was named after a railroad company executive. My friends & I used to hang out near the tracks occasionally to drink beer & watch the trains. In all my time doing that, we never saw one derailment, so you're just another heartless jerk.

[Bob Fitz]

Trains across the country are put into emergency by the engineer every day for a variety of reasons. In most cases, especially on main line tracks, they do not derail. The equipment is designed to stay intact when the emergency feature is used by the operator.

[cherrybrown]

So sorry for these two young gals. Wrong place at the wrong time.

[idiotforreading]

How this becomes a political argument is beyond me. I vote Republican because they want to repeal gravity and that would have prevented this crash.

[karek40]

Obama is anti coal and should be a prime suspect in this terrorist attack against the transprotation of clean burning coal.

[unclebernies]

Can we now stop the tv commercials talking about Clean, safe coal.

[pestomystic]

That's only fair because you know without a doubt if the train had been hauling giant wind turbine propeller blades, someone would be screaming about the dangers of wind energy.

[tafhdyd]

More reason to convert to other energy sources.

[askagain]

After you develop an economical and efficient option to coal and oil, many of us will gladly convert to an alternative energy. 30 to 100 miles on an overnight charge won't get me to and from work each day but a tank of gas gets me there and back seven times. So far, the practicality of alternatve energy whether it be solar, battery, wind, ethanol, or some other form doesn't do the trick.

[rharrin1]

askagain move so you can walk to work.

[AnnieDanny]

I don't think this article is written very well, considering the confused comments below. We don't get it. They "hint" at the derailment being caused by the train attempting to stop. They don't say where the girls were when they got killed: ON the tracks or UNDER the bridge?

It's tragic about the two 19 year old girls. But did they somehow play a part in the train being derailed? Did the train operators have to slam on it's brakes?

I think somebody needs to rewrite this.

[AnnieDanny]

They did add more to the article now so it makes more sense. Thank you.

[askagain]

Ellicott City, Maryland is a quaint town that is interesting to visit. Many of the buildings are built right into ajacent Hills and some are built on steel beams with water running under them. It is a great tourist area not far from Baltimore. There are many antique shops and restaurants. My wife and I were in Ellicott City a couple of months ago. Ironically, we stood under and next to the bridge the trains run over. Trains have been running through Ellicott City for many years. This is the first incident like this in Ellicott City that I've heard about.