Two 19-year-old women were found dead after a CSX train derailed in Ellicott City, police said.
The train derailed just after midnight on an overpass at Main Street. Twenty-one of the eastbound train's 80 cars had derailed or overturned, officials said, and the cars contained coal but no hazardous materials. Some of the cars fell off a bridge and crushed cars in a parking lot.
The victims have been identified as Elizabeth Nass and Rose Mayr, both of Ellicott City. The two were on the bridge shortly before the derailment, Howard County police spokeswoman Mary Phelan said.
The victims were both about to start their junior years of college. Mayr was majoring in nursing at the University of Delaware, according to a university spokeswoman.
James Madison University spokesman Don Egle said he was told that Nass was in the honors program at the Harrisonburg, Va., school and was majoring in interdisciplinary liberal studies. The major is intended for future teachers.
Egle called Nass' death "a true loss to the JMU community."
The train was traveling from Grafton, W.Va., to Baltimore, CSX officials said.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.