Niagara Falls bridge explosion victims identified as couple driving to KISS concert

A vehicle burns at the Rainbow Bridge US border crossing with Canada in Niagara Falls on Wednesday (Picture: Reuters)

The two people killed in a fiery car crash on a Niagara Falls bridge at the US-Canada border have been identified as a husband and wife who were driving to a concert.

Kurt P Villani and Monica Villani, both 53, of Grand Island in western New York were named by the Niagara Falls Police Department on Friday, two days after the their Bentley crashed into a border checkpoint on Rainbow Bridge.

‘The City of Niagara Falls would like to extend our sincere condolences to the families as they deal with this tragedy,’ stated the city.

Investigators believe the couple were heading to a KISS concert in Canada that was canceled after the frontman fell ill, said Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino, according to The New York Times.

Security video shows a light-colored vehicle (top left) traveling toward the Rainbow Bridge customs plaza (Picture: AP)

Their family has owned Gui Lumber since the mid-1980s and seven Ace Hardware stores in the area they lived, the company website and business records show.

The details and cause of the crash that caused panic on both sides of the border amid Thanksgiving week travel are still under investigation. The FBI on Wednesday concluded that the crash was not linked to terrorism, quelling fears.

Investigators on Thursday looked into if the Bentley had a mechanical issue that spurred it to accelerate, Restaino said.

The car struck a low median and flew through the air and smashed into a row of security booths, then caught ablaze and sending up a dark plume of smoke.

Law enforcement personnel block off the entrance to the Rainbow Bridge after the fiery crash(Picture: AP)

A Customs and Border Protection officer watches as a vehicle burns at the Rainbow Bridge US border crossing with Canada (Picture: Reuters)

Police have retraced the Villanis’ trip from a casino on the American side to the bridge and sifted through evidence and surveillance footage.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has called the crash ‘surreal’ and said the vehicle was ‘basically incinerated’.

‘You actually had to look at it and say, “Was this generated by AI?”‘ she said on Wednesday. ‘Because it was so surreal to see how high in the air this vehicle went and then the crash and explosion and the fire.’

A spokeswoman for the US operation of Bentley Motors, Erin Bronner, told The Times that the company has not been contacted by authorities and that the crash was not related to a 2021 recall of models that had issues with accelerator pedals getting stuck.

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