The two victims who died on Wednesday in a deadly explosion on the U.S.-Canada border have been identified as a married couple from Grand Island, New York, Niagara Falls police said.
Monica and Kurt P Villani, both 53, crashed on Wednesday morning while driving down Rainbow Bridge, which leads into and out of Canada at Niagara Falls. People who witnessed the accident said the car went airborne after it struck a cement median. It then caught fire and exploded when it hit a border crossing booth.
“The City of Niagara Falls would like to extend our sincere condolences to the families as they deal with this tragedy,” said Niagara Falls Police Superintendent John Faso in a news release.
The couple’s names were released Friday morning, once their family members were notified. No additional details about the couple were provided.
The couple’s relatives did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
Grand Island, where the couple lived, is less than 10 miles from Rainbow Bridge. It is an island town in Erie County, New York, about 12 miles north of Buffalo.
In a news briefing Thursday afternoon, Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino said investigators believed the pair were headed to a KISS concert on Wednesday night. The concert was eventually canceled because frontman Paul Stanley was sick with the flu, according to a post by the guitarist on X.
A spokesperson for Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino on the U.S. side of the border said the couple stopped at the casino for “a matter of minutes shortly before the crash occurred.”
Police said the crash is still under investigation, but have determined that there were no explosives or a connection to terrorism.
Following the crash, cross-border travel at Rainbow Bridge was suspended until 6:30 p.m. the following day, according to a post on X by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
