Rainbow Bridge reopens to traffic after fiery fatal car crash

Traffic resumed Thursday night across the Rainbow Bridge between Canada and the United States following a fiery crash that claimed the lives of two people.

The bridge, one of the busiest travel corridors between Canada and the United States, was closed after a speeding vehicle lost control on the U.S. side of the border before crashing and bursting into flames just before 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The FBI has ruled out terrorism and says there was no evidence of explosive materials in the crash debris of the Bentley sedan.

“A search of the scene revealed no explosive materials and no terrorism nexus was identified,” the FBI’s Buffalo office said in a statement. “The matter has been turned over to the Niagara Falls Police Department as a traffic investigation.”

In a statement, Niagara Falls police Supt. John Faso called the crash a “tragic incident” and thanked local, regional and national law enforcement agencies for what he called their exemplary response.

“Due to the complexity of the incident, the investigation will take some time to complete,” he said.

The two people who died were a husband and wife, according to a person briefed on the investigation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information about the people who were killed. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the driver was a Western New York resident, but the identities of those in the car have not yet been released.

Police have not publicly confirmed media reports that the car’s occupants had just left the nearby Seneca Niagara casino and may have been bound for Canada when the crash occurred.

Security camera video released by the U.S. government showed the car racing toward the border checkpoint before hitting a low median and flying through the air into a line of booths in an area used for secondary customs inspections.

The crash prompted the closure of three other area border crossings between Ontario and western New York for hours, along with additional passenger screenings and vehicle security checks at the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport.

The vehicle’s wreckage, which witnesses had reported seeing strewn all over the complex, was largely gone Thursday as border officials and construction crews surveyed the remaining damage.

The Rainbow Bridge has about 6,000 vehicles cross it each day, according to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory.

Files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press were used in this report