Bentley in Border Bridge Crash Was a Luxury Car Packed With Power

The car that exploded this week at a border bridge in Niagara Falls, New York, was a 2022 Bentley Flying Spur, authorities said Friday, an ultraluxury model capable of reaching a speed of 60 mph in 4 seconds.

Police identified Kurt P. Villani as the driver and his wife, Monica Villani, as a passenger. The couple, both 53 and from Grand Island, New York, owned several businesses in western New York and were headed to a concert in Toronto before the fatal crash, which remained unexplained.

Speculation had been percolating online about the car’s make and model since the incident occurred just before noon Wednesday, and investigators were exploring whether a mechanical problem had caused the car to accelerate out of control. The vehicle was shown on video moving toward the bridge at a shocking speed before striking a median and taking flight. It burst into flames on impact and shattered, strewing metal over a wide debris field.

Erin Bronner, a spokesperson for the Americas arm of Bentley Motors, said Friday that she could not release information about the Villanis’ car.

Bronner said the incident was not tied to a recall in 2021 of some models over a risk that their accelerator pedals could become stuck. She said there had been no such problem on left-hand drive cars – the kind sold in the United States and Canada.

Niagara Falls police took over the investigation after the FBI concluded Wednesday that the crash was not related to terrorism, despite initial fears and a sweeping response by local, state and federal authorities, including closure of several border crossings.

Robert Restaino, the mayor of Niagara Falls, said that investigators believed the couple had originally been headed to a KISS concert, which was called off about 3½ hours before showtime because of a band member’s illness.

The Police Department’s accident reconstruction team was tracing the couple’s journey from a casino downtown to the border crossing, examining surveillance video, the scene of the crash and other evidence collected by the federal authorities.

The explosion, initially feared to be a terror attack, sent government and law enforcement officials racing to determine what had happened. A worker in a checkpoint booth had minor injuries.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.