The Carroll Standard

Coal Train Derails in Ellicott City, 2 Students Dead

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CSX freight train that derailed overnight in Ellicott City, Md., Aug. 21, 2012. (AP Photo)

(Carroll Standard) Ellicott City, MD - Police in Howard County are investigating the derailment of a train off a bridge in downtown Ellicott City Monday evening that resulted in the deaths of two college students.

Police and fire department personnel were called to Main Street around midnight for a report that an eastbound CSX train had come off the tracks.  Emergency workers found 21 cars of an 80-car freight train derailed or overturned which affected a nearly full public parking lot, crushing automobiles burying them in coal. The cars contained only coal and no hazardous materials. 

Rescue workers located two victims crushed in the wreckage at the scene, later identified as 19-year-old college students and Ellicott City residents -- Elizabeth Conway Nass, a student at James Madison University in Virginia, and Rose Louese Mayr, who attended the University of Delaware -- were tweeting pictures from a bridge that goes over the city's Main Street just minutes before the train came through, CBS Washington station WNEW-FM reported.

Two train operators were unharmed in the incident.  The cause of the derailment is unknown and is being investigated by a CSX investigative team.

Main Street and Frederick Road are closed from Ellicott City into Baltimore County. Updated: At this time, the investigation into this incident has been turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board according to a spokesman for the Howard County Police.