NIAGARA FALLS — The criminal investigation into an explosive accident in November, first though to be a possible terrorist attack on the Rainbow Bridge, has been closed. Sources confirmed Wednesday that Niagara Falls Police Department’s Crash Management Unit probe of the accident ended without a determination of what caused it. Those sources said the investigation of the crash could be reopened “if new evidence becomes available.
” The crash victims were identified as Kurt P. Villani and Monica Villani, both 53, of Grand Island. The Villani family are the owners of Gui’s Lumber and seven Ace Hardware stores in Western New York.
The couple was reportedly on their way to Toronto to attend a concert at the time of the crash. A five-second clip of video, taken by a bridge security camera and released by U.S.
Customs and Border Protection, shows the Villanis’ car speeding onto the entrance of the bridge, striking a concrete barrier and then going airborne. That video did not show the impact of the vehicle in front of the customs’ inspection booths. However, a second video clip, obtained by news media organizations, showed a fireball shooting into the air in front of the booths.
Witnesses on the bridge said the car pancaked onto the plaza pavement and exploded into a ball of flames and smoke that destroyed one of the booths. A CPB officer inside the booth escaped the destruction with minor injuries. It took a joint team of local, state and federal investigators less than 12 hours to determine that what had first been reported as a possible terrorist attack on the international border crossing was actually a horrific car crash.
But figuring out what caused the 2022 Bentley Flying Spur, being driven by Kurt Villani, to go airborne, crash and explode has reportedly been “difficult and complex.” The debris field on the bridge covered a wide area on the customs’ inspection side of the border crossing. The luxury car exploded into thousands of pieces of twisted metal, shattered glass and melted plastic.
The recovered parts of the vehicle were enough to “fill a construction dumpster.” Still, crash investigators said much of the vehicle was incinerated in the heat of the fire that engulfed the car. Among the parts that were not found were the car’s black box data recorder.
Investigators said that the data recorders in automobiles, unlike airplanes, are not built to withstand explosions and fire. One investigator also said that the data on the recorder would have been of limited value in determining what caused the crash. Law enforcement sources said the car’s manufacturer, Bentley Motors, was “less than cooperative” in the investigation.
One source said a request for technical data about the car and its maintenance was rebuffed by Bentley, with a representative of the manufacturer saying a subpoena would be required to release that information. What remains of the vehicle has now reportedly been turned over to insurance investigators. Without a final determination by police on the cause of the crash, the two prevailing theories of what happened remain a possible medical emergency involving the driver or a catastrophic mechanical failure.
Investigators said a review of video evidence amassed by the Niagara Intelligence & Crime Analysis Center showed the Villanis’ car traveling down Niagara Street toward the bridge. The vehicle appeared to be traveling at a very high rate of speed as it entered the bridge plaza, on the toll booth side, where cars were backed up entering into Canada. As the car came onto the plaza, it veered sharply into a concrete barrier, which then caused it to go airborne over an 8-foot high chain link fence.
“It looks like (the driver) was trying to avoid hitting the other cars on the bridge,” an investigator said..
