Two teenage girls were killed early Tuesday when a train derailed on the bridge they were sitting on, spilling coal and burying the young women, police in Maryland said.
Rose Mayr and Elizabeth Nass, both 19, were apparently sitting on a bridge ledge in Ellicott City, Maryland, just after midnight with their backs to the train when it derailed, according to a written statement from Howard County police.
The two girls posted photos to Twitter shortly before the crash. One showed feet dangling over a road, with the caption "Levitating." Another appeared to look down Main Street.
Nass tweeted, "Drinking on top of the Ellicott City sign with @ r0se_petals." The name Ellicott City is painted on the railroad bridge.
Mayr and Nass were high school classmates of David Butko's. He said he grew concerned when he heard about the accident and saw the pictures on Twitter that indicated Mayr and Nass were on the bridge.
iReport: Fatal Train Derailment in Ellicott City MD
"We went to the site ... hung around, but the police wouldn't let us in," he said.
Nass was supposed to go back to college at James Madison in Virginia on Tuesday, he said. Classes begin in six days, according the university's website. A spokesman said Nass was an honors student in the interdisciplinary liberal studies program.
Mayr was a nursing student at the University of Delaware who was about to start her junior year.
"They were both terrific kids," Mount Hebron High School Principal Scott Ruehl said. "Both girls were really involved in the dance program. They were pleasant; they always said hi in the hallway."
