The $300,000 white Bentley that crashed along a border bridge in Niagara Falls Wednesday was described by one witness as being a ‘ball of fire’ that was soaring ’30 or 40′ feet in the air before smashing to the ground, disintegrating and killing both occupants.
The wreck set off a terrorism scare that was felt across the eastern seaboard ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, a time when security agencies are on high-alert for possible attacks.
Those killed were a husband-and-wife who were returning from a canceled Kiss concert in Toronto along Rainbow Bridge which connects Ontario in Canada to New York State. It’s thought the driver may have suffered a ‘medical emergency.’
Witness Mike Guenther told Buffalo television station WGRZ-TV that he was walking near the bridge with his wife when the car, traveling at high speed, struck a fence at the crossing and was catapulted into the air before exploding.
‘He was flying, over 100 miles an hour,’ said Guenther, who was visiting from Kitchener, Ontario. He said the vehicle, which he described as a luxury sedan, was ‘fish-tailing’ out of control before it crashed.
The remnants of the $300,000 Bentley that crashed on Wednesday close to the US/Canada border crossing in Niagara Falls
The giant plume of fire is seen in the aftermath of the crash that killed a 56-year-old business man and his wife
A Bentley Flying Spur, like the one being driven by the businessman and his wife on Wednesday
The crash set off a wave of panic and led to the closure of several border crossings
‘It was a ball of fire, 30 or 40 feet high, never seen anything like it,’ said Guenther.
Another witness told local news outlet WKBW that the scene of the crash looked more like a movie scene.
Rickie Wilson told the station that he thought the white luxury sedan was a plan as he watched it rotate in mid-air before returning to the earth, hitting something before it landed.
While Guenther described seeing ‘car parts everywhere in pieces’ after the horror smash. ‘He was swerving as he was going down this road here, fishtailing because he was going so fast,’ he said.
‘When he hit the fence there was a fire then, but then when he went up again he must have hit the building and there was a big noise and he just shot up in the air and you couldn’t see nothing but smoke.
‘We heard a big bang. I said there is no way that guy is going to stop, he is just going too fast.
‘All of a sudden he went up in the air and then it was a ball of fire like 30-40 feet high, I have never seen anything like it. It was really incredible.’
Guenther said fire trucks were first on the scene and within 10 minutes there were ‘police everywhere’.
‘We could see the fireball – that’s all we could see, it was just smoke everywhere,’ he added. ‘I don’t think that person is going to survive, their car parts were everywhere.’
In this image taken from security video, a light colored vehicle, top center, flies over a fence into the Rainbow Bridge customs plaza
He described the car as ‘flying’ at over 100mph. ‘We could hardly even see it was going that quick,’ he said.
‘There was car in front he swerved around it then it looked like he hit the fence and this fire started.’
The couple were intending on driving to a KISS concert as part of the legendary rockers’ farewell tour in Canada, CNN’s John Miller reported, which was later canceled due to a band member Paul Stanley suffering from the flu.
Miller said there was some speculation the driver, from a well-known family in Grand Isle, New York, had a medical issue.
As a result of the crash, border crossings in the area were shuttered for hours.
Federal and state authorities said investigators found no evidence of an act of terrorism, though circumstances surrounding the crash remained murky, leaving it to be determined whether it was accidental or intentional.
‘At this time, there is no indication of a terrorist attack’ or threat to the public, New York Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters on Wednesday evening.
Her comments were echoed by federal and local law enforcement officials at a separate news conference.
The FBI said in a statement it had concluded its investigation. ‘A search of the scene revealed no explosive materials, and no terrorism nexus was identified,’ the FBI said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Federal and state authorities said investigators found no evidence of an act of terrorism, though circumstances surrounding the crash remained murky
Eye witness Mike Guenther described the terrifying moment he saw a vehicle ‘fishtail’ through traffic towards Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls in the minutes leading up to the explosion
Video of the crash caught on security camera and posted to X by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency showed the car traveling from the U.S. side at high speed, then hitting an object and flying into the air before crashing to the ground and exploding in flames.
The driver and a passenger perished in the wreck, and a CBP officer suffered minor injuries. He was treated at a hospital and released, an agency official said later.
Authorities did not identify the two people killed.
The White House confirmed the president has been briefed on the incident, while Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said ‘additional measures’ were being contemplated and activated at border crossings across his country.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on its website the Buffalo Niagara International Airport had closed, but Hochul said there were no interruptions.
The crash unfolded at a time of heightened security concerns around the world stemming from the conflict in the Middle East and at the peak of U.S. holiday travel on the eve of Thanksgiving celebrations.
The Rainbow Bridge and all three other border crossings along the Niagara River between western New York and the Canadian province of Ontario – the Peace Bridge, the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge and the Whirlpool Bridge – were shut for several hours as a precaution.
Other international crossings remained open on ‘heightened alert status,’ the governor said.
Security measures were escalated at other airports and railways managed by the Niagara-Frontier Transit Authority, as well as at various locations around New York City, officials said.
The three bridges that were not involved were reopened early Wednesday evening, but the Rainbow crossing remained closed during the investigation and as officials assessed the crossing’s safety.
Hochul said the car that crashed sailed over an 8-foot-tall fence before landing in a fireball that incinerated the vehicle, leaving little but the engine visibly intact and scattering debris over more than a dozen security booths on the bridge.