Motorist who drove into Canadian border in fireball crash that sparked terror fears is New York businessman who was driving a $300,000 Bentley ‘Flying Spur’ with his wife – as casino owner reveals they passed by just before the inferno at the border post
A car that crashed into the US-Canada border on Wednesday morning was a $300,000 Bentley driven by a New York businessman, it emerged, as authorities assured a nervous public there was no known terrorist connection.
The 56-year-old businessman and his wife were killed when their Flying Spur crashed into the US checkpoint at high speed and caught fire at 11.27am.
They had been at the Seneca Niagara casino resort before the explosion, but were only there for “minutes,” a spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
“We are cooperating with police in their investigation into the incident that occurred near the Rainbow Bridge,” the spokesperson said.
“We have reviewed and provided information regarding a vehicle that stopped at Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino for just a few minutes shortly before the crash occurred.”
Sources within the casino said the couple were not regulars and may have only been at the resort to exchange money.
They planned to drive to a Kiss concert in Canada, CNN’s John Miller reported.
Miller said there was some speculation that the driver, from a well-known family in Grand Isle, New York, had a medical problem.
A Bentley Flying Spur, as driven by the businessman and his wife on Wednesday
The dramatic crash forced the closure of the Rainbow Bridge on the eve of Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel days of the year.
Kathy Hochul told a news conference Wednesday evening that the images of the fireball on the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara were shocking and that it was a miracle that there were not more injuries.
But she urged calm, saying the two victims were believed to be locals and there was no evidence of terrorism.
According to police sources, no explosives were found in the car.
The light-colored car, which CNN reported was a Bentley, can be seen flying over the fence in the upper right before exploding
The car hit a fence and erupted into a “40-foot-long fireball,” leaving the “car with pieces everywhere.”
NYPD officers were dispatched to support the unfolding situation in Buffalo, New York Mayor Eric Adams confirmed
New York Governor Kathy Hochul will provide an update on the crash on Wednesday evening
One Customs and Border Police officer was slightly injured in the crash. He was treated in hospital and released.
When asked how they determined it wasn’t a terrorist attack, Hochul said, “At this time there are no leads based on online threats or anyone taking credit for it.”
She added: “It’s still unfolding. But I didn’t want to leave the audience in any uncertainty.
“There is no evidence at this time that there was any terrorist activity.”
She said she appreciated the fear and the assumption that it was a terrorist attack.
‘Based on what’s happening in the world, everyone is tense. This is an international border,” she said.
‘I wouldn’t call it an accident yet. All we know is that there has been a horrific incident, a crash, a loss of life – but at this point: no known terrorist activity.”
The FBI special agent in charge Matthew Miraglia, Hochul echoed.
“We do have someone in mind for it and we are working on it through the JTTF,” he said – a reference to the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“We have no derogatory information about this individual that we have identified, we are scanning his social media, there is nothing, we are still conducting a full investigation so that is a preliminary assessment.
“We think at this point this is just something that happened. There is no bigger picture to look at right now.”
Trini Ross, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, said their initial investigation determined the incident was “not terrorism-related” at this stage.
“But we will remain vigilant,” Ross said, saying people should “lower their heightened sensitivities, knowing that we do not believe this was a terrorist event.”
Hochul said she wanted to “reduce the fear.”
The FBI’s Buffalo field office said in a statement that it was investigating the blast, and investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded to the scene.
The explosion on Tuesday claimed the lives of the vehicle’s two occupants and closed three other bridges between western New York and Ontario.
“There are still many unanswered questions,” she says.
“But right now we just had to turn the temperature down.
“We are investigating, but at this time there are no signs of terrorist activity.”
She called the footage of the crash “extraordinary.”
“He is a resident of Western New York who was in the city before the high-speed crash into the median that sent the vehicle airborne,” she said.
‘It will leave you in disbelief how it went so high over an eight-foot fence. It’s very special.’
She added: ‘The fact that other people and vehicles were not damaged… It was a very busy area.
“Thank God no one else was hurt.”
The White House confirmed that the president has been briefed on the incident, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said “additional measures” are being considered and activated at border crossings in his country.
Mike Guenther, of Ontario, said he was walking along Main Street with his wife when he saw the vehicle speeding toward the Canadian border on Wednesday.
He described seeing “cut up car parts everywhere” after the horror impact.
“He swerved as he drove down this road here, fishtailing because he was going so fast,” he said.
“When he hit the fence there was a fire at the time, but when he went back up he must have hit the building and there was a big noise and he just shot up into the air and you couldn’t see anything but smoke.
Eyewitness Mike Guenther described the terrifying moment he saw a vehicle “fishing” through traffic toward Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls in the minutes before the explosion.
A second witness described how officials ordered him to abandon his car and return to Canada on foot
‘We heard a big bang. I said there’s no way that guy can stop, he’s just going too fast.
‘Suddenly it went up into the air and then it was a fireball 30 to 40 feet high, I’ve never seen anything like that. It was absolutely 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, his car parts were everywhere.”
He described the car as “flying” at a speed of more than 100 miles per hour.
“We could hardly see it was happening so fast,” he said.
“There was a car in front of him, he swerved around it, it looked like he hit the fence and the fire started.”