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Nov 24, 2023 7:30 PM - The Canadian Press

Victims in Niagara Falls border bridge crash identified as Western New York couple

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The Niagara Falls Police Department named the couple as Kurt P. Villani and Monica Villani, both 53, of Grand Island. (Photo: The Canadian Press)

The two people killed when their car crashed into a border checkpoint in Niagara Falls and exploded in a fiery wreck were identified Friday as a western New York husband and wife whose family owns a lumber business and several hardware stores in the Buffalo area.

The Niagara Falls Police Department named the couple as Kurt P. Villani and Monica Villani, both 53, of Grand Island, New York, a leafy Buffalo suburb close to the falls.

Authorities have not yet released details on what exactly led to the couple's crash Wednesday at the Rainbow Bridge, where their car raced through an intersection, hit a low median and was launched through the air before slamming into a row of security booths and bursting into flames.

Authorities investigated for several hours before the FBI's Buffalo office said it found no signs the incident was a terror attack and turned the case over to local police as a traffic investigation. The safety measures tied up traffic at a nearby airport in Buffalo and elsewhere on one of the busiest U.S. travel days of the year, ahead of the American Thanksgiving holiday.

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