Federal law enforcement has determined that a car crash on the United States-Canada border that led to two deaths and one injury is not connected to any terrorist group.
Alarms were raised late Wednesday morning after a Bentley exploded near Niagara Falls, killing a couple and injuring a border guard. The couple was traveling at a high speed when their vehicle struck a curb at a New York checkpoint and then hit a guardrail, which sent it airborne into a screening area where it exploded. The Federal Bureau of Intelligence reported that they have not found any connection to terrorism or explosives on site.
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“I want to be very, very clear to Americans and New Yorkers: At this time, there is no indication of a terrorist attack,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul emphasized at a Wednesday press conference.
The investigation was handed over to the Niagara Falls Police Department, the Buffalo branch of the FBI stated.
“Two individuals died in the vehicle,” Hochul added, noting that a western New York resident owned the car.
The vehicle was traveling at an “extraordinarily high rate of speed” when it hit the border crossing around 11:30 a.m., Hochul said. The impact sent the vehicle soaring several feet into the air before it crashed into a Customs and Border Protection booth and erupted into flames. The vehicle was “basically incinerated,” and pieces of the wreckage were scattered across a dozen checkpoint booths.
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Investigators believe the man who died had plans to attend a KISS concert in Canada. However, they visited a casino in the U.S. instead when the concert was canceled. The crash occurred after the couple departed the casino.
The explosion caused local authorities to close all four bridges between Canada and the U.S. on one of the year’s busiest travel days. Three of the bridges reopened, but Rainbow Bridge remained closed as of the time of this article’s publishing.
