A car shot into the air after hitting a concrete barrier near the Rainbow Bridge border crossing between the USA and Canada Wednesday morning. Both occupants died after the car exploded before landing. Authorities are still investigating the incident but do not believe it had anything to do with terrorist activity.
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol released the surveillance video below on Wednesday. In it, a car travels from left to right at a high rate of speed into a concrete barrier and subsequently flies high out of the camera frame. Aside from the two dead occupants, authorities say that one border patrol agent suffered minor injuries in connection with the incident.
“Absolutely surreal. You have to look at it and say ‘was this generated by AI?’ because it was so surreal to see how high this vehicle went, and the crash, and the explosion, and the fire,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a press conference Wednesday. “The vehicle basically incinerated,” she added. “Nothing is left but the engine. The pieces are scattered over 13, 14 booths. It’s a large scene and it’s going to take a long time for federal law enforcement officers to piece together the real story.”
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The border crossing immediately shut down as did three other crossings as a measure of caution. Out of a concern for safety, people going into airports in Buffalo, NY and Niagara Falls faced increased security checks for explosive devices. Those on each side of the border crossing were stuck for hours before it reopened sometime just after 5 p.m.
One witness spoke to local news agency WGRZ-TV and said that he saw the car in question before the accident. Evidently, it sped past the witness, swerved to avoid another car on the road, and then hit the concrete barrier. “Based on what we know at this moment, and again anything can change, there is no sign of terrorist activity with respects to this crash,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a news conference.