We know so much about the Rainbow Bridge incident…except for the driver’s name
UPDATE: The people in the car were finally identified on Friday as Kurt Villani and his wife Monica, neither of whom appear to have any terrorist connections. I will continue to wonder about the long delay in making their names public. I've lost all faith in both the government and the media to give honest accountings of anything.
Yesterday, the news was filled with reports of an attack at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing between the United States and Canada near Niagara Falls. It was a dramatic incident that ended with a fiery explosion. Very quickly, though, we were told, “Not to worry. It was just a guy speeding.” What we haven’t been told, though, is the names of the people involved. In this day and age of cynicism and paranoia, I find that silence weird.
In the footage below, you can see the car at the very top of the screen, in the background, as it begins to soar:
NEW VIDEO: Speeding car goes airborne at NY-Canada border before deadly explosion https://t.co/6H7xajUyR1 pic.twitter.com/eIFbT1DyxU
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 22, 2023
There was footage, too, of the moment the car burst into flames:
BREAKING: Security camera footage of the explosion at Rainbow Bridge US-Canada border crossing. pic.twitter.com/EJsFDQBVtY
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) November 22, 2023
After the crash, the car continued to burn, sparking rumors that there were explosives in the car:
ЁЯЪи BREAKING: The car explosion at the border between U.S. and Canada was an “attempted terrorist attack” and there were “a lot of explosives” in the vehicle pic.twitter.com/94yOf2U8Vq
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 22, 2023
The car’s occupants were killed. No one else was.
The authorities, however, swiftly dispelled any claims about terrorism:
The car that crashed at a high speed and exploded at the U.S.-Canada border crossing near Niagara Falls, N.Y., on Wednesday, killing both passengers inside, had no link to terrorism, the FBI said Wednesday night.
“A search of the scene revealed no explosive materials, and no terrorism nexus was identified,” the agency said in a statement. “The matter has been turned over to the Niagara Falls Police Department as a traffic investigation.”
New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, reiterated this message:
WATCH: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says vehicle crash and explosion on Rainbow Bridge was a "horrific accident"
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 22, 2023
"At this time, there is no indication of a terrorist attack." pic.twitter.com/GwFWpekaKM
We swiftly learned the non-terrorist info about what happened. The narrative involves a rich New York couple in a Bentley, a KISS concert, an evening at a casino and—boom!—a big crash:
Investigators believe the two people in the car, a man and a woman, may have been heading from a casino in Niagara Falls to a Kiss concert at the Scotiabank Arena in Ontario, according to the sources.
The driver, a Western New York resident, was going “at a high rate of speed” when he swerved into a US Customs and Border Patrol barrier at a checkpoint on the US side, Hochul and the sources said.
The car never made it to the Canadian side of the border.
CNN even gave us the driver’s age—56.
And that’s it. The news stories I can find are, at the latest, from early yesterday evening. Since then, there’s complete media silence.
But have you noticed the one thing missing from this whole narrative? Yup, the couple’s identity.
Now, it’s possible that they’re not releasing the name until relatives have been notified, but that’s not usually the case when something is headline news, the way this crash was. Instead, the names of the people involved instantly appear on social media. And given the level of detail we have about the couple—where they lived, how old the driver was, what they were doing that evening—you’d think someone would know their names.
And yet…nothing. For that reason, I’m not willing to dismiss Catturd’s cynicism:
Nothing to see here - it was just 2 rich adults in a nice car driving 100 mph and purposely ramping to their suicidal deaths because they were mad at a KISS concert being canceled. ЁЯСЙ (farting sound)
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) November 23, 2023
It definitely wasn't terrorism though. https://t.co/JvPpWadXSj
As with the Nashville shooter’s entire manifesto, until we get all the information, I am not willing to accept the agreed-upon narrative. The media simply doesn’t deserve our trust.
Image: X screen grab.