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Subscribe to RSSOn Monday night two college students died during a freight train accident in Ellicott City, Md. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
At least two people were killed when a freight train hauling coal derailed west of Baltimore late Monday.
Police and fire department personnel responded to an emergency call at about 11:45 p.m. Monday and reported that 21 of the train’s 80 cars flipped over and fell from a bridge in Ellicott City, Md, a city just 14 miles from Baltimore. The cars contained coal but were not carrying any hazardous materials.
The CSX train left from Grafton, W. Va., and was bound for Baltimore.
“Many of those train cars fell onto automobiles, literally fell onto automobiles with the coal, so you have massive piles of coal and heavy train cars on top of automobiles,” Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said.
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The victims were identified Tuesday as Elizabeth Nass, 19, and Rose Mayr, 19, both of Ellicott City. Howard County police said the young women were sitting on the ledge of a bridge with their backs to the side of the passing train at the time of the derailment, but were not railroad employees; officers did not know why they were there.
Both Mayr and Nass both tweeted and posted pictures about sitting on the bridge around 9 p.m.
Their bodies were found buried under a pile of coal that spilled out from the open cars.
Witnesses said the coal on the ground was about a foot high.
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Nass attended James Madison University in Virginia. Mayr was a student at the University of Delaware, NBCWashington reported.
The train’s three operators were not harmed in the incident, police said. Rescue crews are still working to clean up the coal and searching for more possible victims.
“A CSX [Rail Corp.] has brought in heavy cranes to move those train cars so we can search the vehicles to see if we have any additional victims,” Ullman said. “We hope and we do pray that we do not.”
Jim Southworth with the National Transportation Safety Board said at a news conference Tuesday the operators saw and felt nothing before the train’s emergency brake was activated.
The eastbound train had two locomotives, weighed 9,000 tons and was 3,000-feet-long.
It fell into a parking lot near Main Street in Ellicott City. Several other streets have been closed because of the crash, Ellicott City Patch reported.
The damaged cars are being removed from the scene. Southworth said investigators will review video taken from inside the train and conduct an inspection of the track and signal system.
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Representatives from the Maryland State Department of the Environment surveyed the scene and tentatively said that there was no serious impact on the nearby Patapsco River.
“It could have been a lot worse when it comes to chemicals,” Ulman said.
It’s not known what caused the derailment
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This is what happens when a nation depends on capitalism.
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Capitalism has been working more efficiently than some other economies. Example: EU.
Worst comment ever.
BET THE TWO GIRLS CAUSED THE DERAILMENT FOR KICKS ... RR detectives need to check with their friends and find out why they were ILLEGALLY on the tracks.
RR authorities need to start arresting and heavily fining those who live and suing the estates of the dead ones like they use to do years ago. Anyone breaking any laws, need to be arrested and forced to do jail time, not community service or home time.
Parents need to take control of their kids and know where they are and enforce curfews or neighbors and anyone else seeing kids out like this, or anyone trespassing illegally, etc. need to start calling 911 immediately and then calling Child Welfare authorities the next working hours and tell them to check into it.
I never have - and never will feel bad for anyone killed or injured while breaking any laws.
Hope they checked the engineer for drinking. This sounds like drunk driving to me. You really have to slow down at turns, and more careful when driving a train. Most of the engineers are very inconsiderate themselves, going through intersections during the day, stopping people from getting to work in a timely manner, it's just plain rude. I really don't know how they sleep at night, I figured they were all bullies when they were kids.
From this posting it sounds like you're the one who might be drunk
rude?!?!.the train is one of the most vital comercial veins in an economy.leave for work earlier.
BET THE TWO GIRLS CAUSED THE DERAILMENT FOR KICKS ... RR detectives need to check with their friends and find out why they were ILLEGALLY on the tracks.
RR authorities need to start arresting and heavily fining those who live and suing the estates of the dead ones like they use to do years ago. Anyone breaking any laws, need to be arrested and forced to do jail time, not community service or home time.
Parents need to take control of their kids and know where they are and enforce curfews or neighbors and anyone else seeing kids out like this, or anyone trespassing illegally, etc. need to start calling 911 immediately and then calling Child Welfare authorities the next working hours and tell them to check into it.
I never have - and never - will feel bad for anyone killed or injured while breaking any laws.
I imagine when the engineer saw these 2 rocket scientists on the tracks he hit the emergency brake which caused the derailment.
Pardon me girls. Quit chattin' and look for the choo choo.
Sorry people died, but it is not a good idea to be on train tracks. Didn't their parents teach them anything? 3-2-1 - lawsuit by the girls' families against the RR for some spurious reason like - there wasn't adequate signage on the tracks or they should've been fenced or fixed the hole in the fence, etc, etc. Personally, if my car were damaged, I'd sue the girls' families for causing the derailment. Harsh? Yeah - but goes at the lack of responsibility mentality of this country.
Trespassing on RR tracks is a criminal offense (albeit minor in the grand scheme of things). Pretty sure that invalidates any kind of lawsuit.
I never have - and never will feel bad for anyone killed or injured while breaking any laws. Karma - That is the only way they pay for their illegal criminal actions and hopefully other idiots like them might learn from it and quit being or not being criminals.
Shipping Costs of freight is passed right down to consumers who purchase the goods because of idiots like these two girls and anyone else who are criminals and breaking laws and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, losses to this RR and any other companies - and that really pi$$e$ me off that I have to end up paying for more due to idiots like these having fun and only thinking of themselves and no one else. If they did not pay with their lives, taxpayers would never receive any payment in return for their criminal behavior and such behavior would have continued throughout their entire lives until they either died or caused the death of others and would be sentenced to prison. These were two adults who choose to break the law and be criminals.
My personal opinions and I could care less who likes them or not. Once prices go up, they never come back down and criminals like these two girls and all others committing crimes - causes the rise in prices for everything and all taxes go up, etc. and anyone hating my comments are dumba$$ for thinking it is ok that consumers just keep paying higher and higher prices for criminals like this.
I am waiting to read if any others were killed in the smashed vehicles, I hope not - but the families of any who were killed because of the criminal acts of these two girls - then they need to sue the parents because these girls are criminals and were living at the parent's homes at the time they committed these crimes.
And - I would only feel sadness for these Parents - If these parents did teach their girls right from wrong and to obey all laws, etc. then they can only blame their girls for causing their own deaths and hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses to the RR.
But - If these parents were Negligent and Horrible parents - then because of their poor parenting and not teaching their girls right from wrong and to obey all laws - they actually caused the death of their girls the same as it was the girls causing their own deaths - and no one else besides the parents and the dumba$$ girls who paid the price for breaking the law.
These 2 girls were legal adults over the age of 18 years old. BUT if the parents do sue, they need to be sued for not controlling these girls, who were living at their homes at the time these criminal acts were committed.
Agreed, that since these two idiots were trespassing on Private RR Property, any lawsuit will be thrown out and it should be, except the RR should sue the parents for all damages and losses.
There you are just having a good time on the train tracks (where you aren't supposed to be) and wham. You suffer a spontaneous train derailment and a bunch of coal cars flip over on you. They were obviously there at the right place and the right time to have their life ended. It's sad - but according to CHIRS150 above if that dang train driver would have slowed down, stopped drinking and not be rude, those two 19yr old mensa giants would still be alive. Now that's something to ponder. I somehow think not.
Good God! They were 19 years old, doing what many of might have done at that age. They did not deserve to die.
Maybe if all of you pundits could remember when you were 19, or have teenage children, or knew the families of the girls, you would not be so quick to judge or make such snarky comments.
Accidents happen. The real question is why the emergency brake activated. The train shouldn't have tipped the cars over.Well, I got a ticket for being on a railroad right away(chasing the Ringling Bros. Circus Train around). I was still 20 feet from the track but according to the police, I WAS on RR property and this was in Patapsco State Park at Thomas Viaduct. These girls should've known that this was a main line and NOT to be hanging around on it. I believe thats why the B&O Ellicott city station has a High Fence around it. TO STOP {PEOPLE from being curious). The family I feel sorry for, but they have No RIGHT to sue CSX. The kids were Tresspassing on RR property.
just my .02 cents
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