Villani crash unsolved

(Editor's note: The following was originally published under Rick Pfeiffer's byline but was picked up by New York Upstate out of Syracuse.)

A year ago today the world was watching events unfolding in Niagara Falls.

A fiery crash at the Rainbow Bridge’s U.S. border plaza quickly stoked fears of a sinister plot as law enforcement shut down the international span and other local border crossings.

With a heightened sense of tension in the world, news of the bridge’s shutdown quickly traveled across the globe.

“The world is watching what happened here,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said later that day after she traveled to the Falls for a press conference. “At a time when there is such high anxiety stress levels are high and we’ve been on heightened alert since Oct. 7, that’s why it’s so important for me to stand here and tell the world that based on what we know at this moment, and again, anything can change, there is no sign of terrorist activity with respect to this crash.”

In the end, it was determined that what had first been reported as a possible terrorist attack was actually a horrific car crash.

The criminal investigation into an explosive accident was closed in July when the Niagara Falls Police Department’s Crash Management Unit’s (CMU) probe of the fatal crash ended without a determination of what caused the accident. Those sources said the investigation of the crash could be reopened “if new evidence becomes available.”

The crash victim’s were identified as Kurt P. Villani and Monica Villani, both 53, of Grand Island. The Villani family are the owner’s 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.

Investigators said a review of video evidence amassed by the Niagara Intelligence & Crime Analysis Center (NICAC) in the Falls 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.

A five-second clip of video, released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and taken by a bridge security camera, shows the Villani’s 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.

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 CBP booths. A CPB officer inside the booth escaped the destruction with only minor injuries.

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.