New York police have identified the victims of a deadly vehicle crash at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls that led to the closing of border crossings with Canada.
Kurt Villani and his wife Monica, both 53, died Wednesday after their car became airborne and crashed into the checkpoint on the U.S.-Canada border before bursting into flames, according to authorities. A border patrol officer sustained minor injuries.
The couple lived about 10 miles from the site of the crash in Grand Island, New York. Their family owns a lumber business and several hardware stores in the Buffalo area.
Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino told The New York Times the couple was driving a Bentley on their way to attend a Kiss concert in Toronto that was canceled due to an illness in the band.
Local and state authorities quelled fears of terrorism hours after the explosion.
The FBI’s Buffalo office said it found “no explosive materials, and no terrorism nexus.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul described the wreck as “surreal” and said the car was “basically incinerated” with nothing left but the engine and charred debris.
“You actually had to look at it and say, Was this generated by AI?” Hochul said. “Because it was so surreal to see. How high in the air this vehicle went, and then the crash, and the explosion, and the fire.”
Eyewitness Rickie Wilson, a Niagara Falls tour guide, said it seemed like a movie: “I first thought it was an airplane. It looked like slow motion. I said, ‘My God, it’s a car. It’s a vehicle, and it’s flying through the air.’”
The Niagara Falls Police Department investigation is ongoing, and is expected to “take some time to complete” because of the “complexity of the incident.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Caleb Parke ✉
Caleb Parke has over a decade of journalism experience and serves as a correspondent for Newsmax. He is the recipient of a regional Edward R. Murrow Award.
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