NY vehicle explosion reported at Rainbow Bridge near Niagara Falls, 1 injured
https://www.foxnews.com/us/ny-vehicle-explosion-reported-rainbow-bridge-niagara-falls-injured
Watching this on CNN right now.
Seems like a weird spot for a terrorist attack but also seems very unlikely to be accidental either so we'll wait for more details.
Quote from: thenetwork on November 22, 2023, 01:45:41 PM
NY vehicle explosion reported at Rainbow Bridge near Niagara Falls, 1 injured
https://www.foxnews.com/us/ny-vehicle-explosion-reported-rainbow-bridge-niagara-falls-injured
Fudge. This will definitely put a crimp on some weekend plans for folks in that area. No doubt the closure will be for multiple hours.
Some videos here from Twitter: https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1727393535681335569?s=20 (https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1727393535681335569?s=20)
Quote from: ZLoth on November 22, 2023, 02:15:22 PM
Quote from: thenetwork on November 22, 2023, 01:45:41 PM
NY vehicle explosion reported at Rainbow Bridge near Niagara Falls, 1 injured
https://www.foxnews.com/us/ny-vehicle-explosion-reported-rainbow-bridge-niagara-falls-injured
Fudge. This will definitely put a crimp on some weekend plans for folks in that area. No doubt the closure will be for multiple hours.
On one of the busiest travel days of the year, no less. And don't think that because it's not a holiday in Canada, that there won't be a lot of cross-border travel. It's still a
major cross-border travel day with US residents visiting family in Canada, and vice versa.
All four Niagara crossings are now closed, so anyone wanting to get across this afternoon will have to cross at the Thousand Islands, Detroit, or Port Huron depending on origin/destination.
Just go around the lake.
In the US, it is the busiest travel day by car. I'm sure in that part of Canada, at least, that spills over.
Reports at this point seem to be mixed, but apparently the car accelerated, hit a curb and jumped in the air before it exploded. Both occupants are dead.
Quote from: Rothman on November 22, 2023, 03:19:56 PM
Just go around the lake.
Easy to say, but it's an 8 hour trek around Lake Ontario or nearly 10 hours around Lake Erie.
At this point, it looks like a reckless driver heading toward Canada. Apparently, the vehicle was going very fast and hit something on the US side, heading west, caught on fire, then had an explosion. Could be gasoline in the tank from the description of the vehicle (a witness said a Chrysler 300).
Found a photo of the vehicle. Looks like a Tesla Model S or 3.
https://twitter.com/AngryCops/status/1727435284902756811
This might be understatement of the year, but that car was going ridiculously fast.
Quote from: Brandon on November 22, 2023, 05:44:44 PM
(a witness said a Chrysler 300).
Found a photo of the vehicle. Looks like a Tesla Model S or 3.
It really does look more like a Chrysler 300 (or equivalent).
It is a Bentley.
Nope, that's a Cadillac!
Lewiston and Peace Bridge crossings have reopened. I foresee Rainbow being closed considerably longer depending on the extent of damage. It'll be an inconvenience for travelers visiting the Falls, but the other crossings can handle things adequately outside of peak summer travel. It should be manageable even if the closure persists through the weekend, just plan for a bit of extra delay, especially tonight/tomorrow AM and Sunday.
Turned out it was just a couple idiots on their way to a KISS concert they were unaware was cancelled due to Paul Stanley having the flu.
Tragic and unnecessary.
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on November 22, 2023, 06:33:52 PM
It is a Bentley.
Saw the later reports, and it's a Bentley. Now I'm curious as to how the hell it got airborne like that. Apparently the couple was going to the KISS concert, found out it was cancelled, and went to a casino in New York instead. At that point, one must wonder if alcohol was involved.
Quote from: Brandon on November 23, 2023, 07:31:15 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on November 22, 2023, 06:33:52 PM
It is a Bentley.
Saw the later reports, and it's a Bentley. Now I'm curious as to how the hell it got airborne like that. Apparently the couple was going to the KISS concert, found out it was cancelled, and went to a casino in New York instead. At that point, one must wonder if alcohol was involved.
Simple, hit the curb going really fucking fast:
https://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/status/1727458608739242374
(FYI: You need to strip the URL after the '?' for our tweet parser to work for it. -rmf67)
Quote from: Brandon on November 23, 2023, 07:31:15 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on November 22, 2023, 06:33:52 PM
It is a Bentley.
Saw the later reports, and it's a Bentley. Now I'm curious as to how the hell it got airborne like that. Apparently the couple was going to the KISS concert, found out it was cancelled, and went to a casino in New York instead. At that point, one must wonder if alcohol was involved.
I don't know where the involved locations are relative to the bridge. Where the concert would have been, where the casino is. But going to a KISS concert in the early afternoon? Was it really then or were they way early (maybe tailgating)?
https://apnews.com/article/niagara-falls-bridge-explosion-4e8f9bfeabd94a0d8aa4d96eccd179b9
Update its been changed to two deaths reported at the US-Canadian border.
Quote from: tmoore952 on November 23, 2023, 11:44:28 AM
Quote from: Brandon on November 23, 2023, 07:31:15 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on November 22, 2023, 06:33:52 PM
It is a Bentley.
Saw the later reports, and it's a Bentley. Now I'm curious as to how the hell it got airborne like that. Apparently the couple was going to the KISS concert, found out it was cancelled, and went to a casino in New York instead. At that point, one must wonder if alcohol was involved.
I don't know where the involved locations are relative to the bridge. Where the concert would have been, where the casino is. But going to a KISS concert in the early afternoon? Was it really then or were they way early (maybe tailgating)?
From what I've read, the concert was scheduled to take place in Toronto, which is about an hour-and-a-half drive from Niagara Falls on the QEW. Presumably, they left early enough to grab supper before the concert, as well as perhaps do some other stuff in Toronto earlier that afternoon, given sufficient time. I know that I would have left early myself, given that I love to do that whenever I go to another city for a concert, game, or some other sort of event.
Quote from: KCRoadFan on November 23, 2023, 12:39:51 PM
Quote from: tmoore952 on November 23, 2023, 11:44:28 AM
Quote from: Brandon on November 23, 2023, 07:31:15 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on November 22, 2023, 06:33:52 PM
It is a Bentley.
Saw the later reports, and it's a Bentley. Now I'm curious as to how the hell it got airborne like that. Apparently the couple was going to the KISS concert, found out it was cancelled, and went to a casino in New York instead. At that point, one must wonder if alcohol was involved.
I don't know where the involved locations are relative to the bridge. Where the concert would have been, where the casino is. But going to a KISS concert in the early afternoon? Was it really then or were they way early (maybe tailgating)?
From what I've read, the concert was scheduled to take place in Toronto, which is about an hour-and-a-half drive from Niagara Falls on the QEW. Presumably, they left early enough to grab supper before the concert, as well as perhaps do some other stuff in Toronto earlier that afternoon, given sufficient time. I know that I would have left early myself, given that I love to do that whenever I go to another city for a concert, game, or some other sort of event.
I've driven that exact route myself to Toronto and it makes sense. I appreciate details like that -- which often seem to be missing.
I know there is a casino on the Ontario side (of Niagara Falls). I went there, but it was 20+ years ago. Is there a casino on the NY side now? An earlier post (which is in my quoted section above here) implied that. It would seem that if they were approaching the Rainbow bridge from the NY side that they were intending to go to Ontario.
They built a casino on the US side maybe a decade or so ago. Something like that (I lose track of time, so I'm not sure). I think the City of Niagara Falls saw the success of the one in Ontario and wanted in on the action themselves.
The security video that Customs released was crazy. That driver was flying. Literally and figuratively.
Quote from: tmoore952 on November 23, 2023, 12:49:52 PM
Is there a casino on the NY side now?
It looks like there is: https://senecacasinos.com/our-properties/seneca-niagara-resort-casino/
I believe in no conspiracy here, but I can't tell you all how freakin' unusual it is for a car to explode on impact like that in a car crash, even at the ludicrous speed it was traveling.
Curious about the physics involved here that yielded this result. I never saw anything like this in years of adjusting auto claims, and I saw impacts that were even more high-speed than this one.
Sounds a bit like a murder/suicide, with an attempt to make it spectacular. /uninformed speculation
Quote from: gonealookin on November 24, 2023, 12:16:44 AM
Sounds a bit like a murder/suicide, with an attempt to make it spectacular. /uninformed speculation
Could have been. Someone was high tech like Barney Collier on Mission Impossible and built a bomb in his car to explode to make sure they die as a standard collision might not due the trick. 😂🤣
Quote from: tmoore952 on November 23, 2023, 12:49:52 PM
Quote from: KCRoadFan on November 23, 2023, 12:39:51 PM
From what I've read, the concert was scheduled to take place in Toronto, which is about an hour-and-a-half drive from Niagara Falls on the QEW. Presumably, they left early enough to grab supper before the concert, as well as perhaps do some other stuff in Toronto earlier that afternoon, given sufficient time. I know that I would have left early myself, given that I love to do that whenever I go to another city for a concert, game, or some other sort of event.
I've driven that exact route myself to Toronto and it makes sense. I appreciate details like that -- which often seem to be missing.
I know there is a casino on the Ontario side (of Niagara Falls). I went there, but it was 20+ years ago. Is there a casino on the NY side now? An earlier post (which is in my quoted section above here) implied that. It would seem that if they were approaching the Rainbow bridge from the NY side that they were intending to go to Ontario.
It's also worth noting that 1.5 hours from the border to Toronto is a very optimistic estimate. There's no good alternate to the QEW, and it's perpetually congested between Burlington and Toronto, so that stretch can easily be 1.5 hours on its own. Plus Niagara to Burlington is also prone to congestion on weekends and peak travel periods.
Toronto is increasingly not that far off from NYC/LA in terms of congestion woes, and it's even worse in terms of the lack of freeways serving its downtown.
Periodic rants about today's media.
So, I get an explosion at a country's checkpoint is cause for immediate concern, but once again the media was way off on what happened. They quickly not only assumed, but claimed they had verification this was an act of terrorism. Who know how they managed to get interviews from people saying the car was speeding across the bridge when the vehicle was never on the bridge. The FBI realized within 6 hours that it wasn't their jurisdiction; yet some media were slow to update that this was not terrorism, as if they lost out on their big story of the weekend.
The public ain't any better. Many were hoping this was an EV, just to carry on their agenda that EVs are dangerous. When it turned out the explosion was caused by a gasoline powered vehicle, almost no one said "gas vehicles are dangerous". No one even said "Bentleys are dangerous". It's as if people are perfectly fine that vehicles with gasoline are expected to occasionally catch fire or explode on occasion, with unknown reasons why the car just powered forward at a fast rate of speed. If an EV does the same, they're clearly an unsafe type of vehicle.
If this was a private company making outlandish claims, all hell would break loose. When the media does it, oh well, we'll listen tomorrow to see what other news is occurring.
I honestly forget how long it took me to drive from Niagara to Toronto. The last time I did it was 1999, so my experience is way outdated. I don't remember it being all that far distancewise but as mentioned there is really only one good way to do it.
I'll be the first to admit that I haven't followed this story that closely, have had other things to deal with.
But as much as we want to blame the car one way or another, wasn't there a good bit of driver error here?
Quote from: jeffandnicole on November 24, 2023, 05:16:31 PM
Periodic rants about today's media.
So, I get an explosion at a country's checkpoint is cause for immediate concern, but once again the media was way off on what happened. They quickly not only assumed, but claimed they had verification this was an act of terrorism. Who know how they managed to get interviews from people saying the car was speeding across the bridge when the vehicle was never on the bridge. The FBI realized within 6 hours that it wasn't their jurisdiction; yet some media were slow to update that this was not terrorism, as if they lost out on their big story of the weekend.
The public ain't any better. Many were hoping this was an EV, just to carry on their agenda that EVs are dangerous. When it turned out the explosion was caused by a gasoline powered vehicle, almost no one said "gas vehicles are dangerous". No one even said "Bentleys are dangerous". It's as if people are perfectly fine that vehicles with gasoline are expected to occasionally catch fire or explode on occasion, with unknown reasons why the car just powered forward at a fast rate of speed. If an EV does the same, they're clearly an unsafe type of vehicle.
If this was a private company making outlandish claims, all hell would break loose. When the media does it, oh well, we'll listen tomorrow to see what other news is occurring.
My perusal of news stories was different. Seemed to go from "investigation is ongoing" to "just stupid driver" in decent time. Never saw a source that said it was definitely terrorism.
Quote from: Rothman on November 24, 2023, 05:51:01 PM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on November 24, 2023, 05:16:31 PM
Periodic rants about today's media.
So, I get an explosion at a country's checkpoint is cause for immediate concern, but once again the media was way off on what happened. They quickly not only assumed, but claimed they had verification this was an act of terrorism. Who know how they managed to get interviews from people saying the car was speeding across the bridge when the vehicle was never on the bridge. The FBI realized within 6 hours that it wasn't their jurisdiction; yet some media were slow to update that this was not terrorism, as if they lost out on their big story of the weekend.
The public ain't any better. Many were hoping this was an EV, just to carry on their agenda that EVs are dangerous. When it turned out the explosion was caused by a gasoline powered vehicle, almost no one said "gas vehicles are dangerous". No one even said "Bentleys are dangerous". It's as if people are perfectly fine that vehicles with gasoline are expected to occasionally catch fire or explode on occasion, with unknown reasons why the car just powered forward at a fast rate of speed. If an EV does the same, they're clearly an unsafe type of vehicle.
If this was a private company making outlandish claims, all hell would break loose. When the media does it, oh well, we'll listen tomorrow to see what other news is occurring.
My perusal of news stories was different. Seemed to go from "investigation is ongoing" to "just stupid driver" in decent time. Never saw a source that said it was definitely terrorism.
Three particular cable news channels immediately labeled it terrorism. You can probably guess which three.
Quote from: webny99 on November 24, 2023, 02:06:49 PM
Toronto is increasingly not that far off from NYC/LA in terms of congestion woes, and it's even worse in terms of the lack of freeways serving its downtown.
Even if the numbers are somehow better, I'd argue that it already is worse than NYC at least. NYC, just avoid the Cross-Bronx and the BQE, and you're fine outside of peak hours. Some spots of stop and go, sure, but not completely gridlocked everywhere, either, and it's generally possible to move around. Toronto is just plain gridlocked in nearly all daylight hours across nearly all freeways, with no way around it unless you're willing to pay for ON 407. Plus NYC is avoidable. Toronto isn't. It must suck to drive across Ontario.
Quote from: vdeane on November 24, 2023, 08:18:30 PM
Quote from: webny99 on November 24, 2023, 02:06:49 PM
Toronto is increasingly not that far off from NYC/LA in terms of congestion woes, and it's even worse in terms of the lack of freeways serving its downtown.
Even if the numbers are somehow better, I'd argue that it already is worse than NYC at least. NYC, just avoid the Cross-Bronx and the BQE, and you're fine outside of peak hours. Some spots of stop and go, sure, but not completely gridlocked everywhere, either, and it's generally possible to move around. Toronto is just plain gridlocked in nearly all daylight hours across nearly all freeways, with no way around it unless you're willing to pay for ON 407. Plus NYC is avoidable. Toronto isn't. It must suck to drive across Ontario.
I actually agree with this, I just thought it might be controversial to state it so strongly. Toronto's freeways are somehow less avoidable than other major metros (perhaps in part due to the linear sprawl along the lakeshore), and when they get congested it greatly affects the parallel surface streets/service roads. Part of the problem is the lack of freeways into downtown: there's really only two (the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway) as Allen Road ends too far north. This seemingly pushes more traffic out onto the 401, creating a circle of gridlock even despite the 401 being one of the widest freeways in the world.
And 407 is great if you absolutely need to save time and are prepared to pay, but it's not only cost prohibitive for daily use, it doesn't even help much to get to downtown Toronto. Although 407/403/401/427 can sometimes be faster than the QEW, you're still stuck with a 10-mile slog on the Gardiner.
Quote from: tmoore952 on November 24, 2023, 05:34:04 PM
I honestly forget how long it took me to drive from Niagara to Toronto. The last time I did it was 1999, so my experience is way outdated. I don't remember it being all that far distancewise but as mentioned there is really only one good way to do it.
I haven't driven it either - I just got the hour-and-a-half figure from Google Maps.
Quote from: KCRoadFan on November 24, 2023, 11:10:13 PM
Quote from: tmoore952 on November 24, 2023, 05:34:04 PM
I honestly forget how long it took me to drive from Niagara to Toronto. The last time I did it was 1999, so my experience is way outdated. I don't remember it being all that far distancewise but as mentioned there is really only one good way to do it.
I haven't driven it either - I just got the hour-and-a-half figure from Google Maps.
I kinda remember it being about 2 hours from Niagara Falls, but that includes a light snow falling, and the actual destination point in Toronto, which is a reasonably large city.
My only recent ride through there was this March. I left my hotel in downtown Toronto around 10:30 AM. I was at the border at the L-Q Bridge at 12:10, across into NY 10 minutes later. And that's with stops at a gas station and at a grocery store in Grimsby to pick up a few Canada-only items with the rest of my $CDN cash. I remember being amazed at how little traffic there was. This was a cold and windy Saturday morning.
Quote from: Jim on November 25, 2023, 10:24:28 AM
My only recent ride through there was this March. I left my hotel in downtown Toronto around 10:30 AM. I was at the border at the L-Q Bridge at 12:10, across into NY 10 minutes later. And that's with stops at a gas station and at a grocery store in Grimsby to pick up a few Canada-only items with the rest of my $CDN cash. I remember being amazed at how little traffic there was. This was a cold and windy Saturday morning.
Not bad at all. It can be done in 1 hr 15 mins with no traffic, but you certainly would have had a very different experience during summer travel season, when weekend congestion can start as early as 9:30-10AM.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on November 24, 2023, 05:16:31 PM
Periodic rants about today's media.
So, I get an explosion at a country's checkpoint is cause for immediate concern, but once again the media was way off on what happened. They quickly not only assumed, but claimed they had verification this was an act of terrorism. Who know how they managed to get interviews from people saying the car was speeding across the bridge when the vehicle was never on the bridge. The FBI realized within 6 hours that it wasn't their jurisdiction; yet some media were slow to update that this was not terrorism, as if they lost out on their big story of the weekend.
The public ain't any better. Many were hoping this was an EV, just to carry on their agenda that EVs are dangerous. When it turned out the explosion was caused by a gasoline powered vehicle, almost no one said "gas vehicles are dangerous". No one even said "Bentleys are dangerous". It's as if people are perfectly fine that vehicles with gasoline are expected to occasionally catch fire or explode on occasion, with unknown reasons why the car just powered forward at a fast rate of speed. If an EV does the same, they're clearly an unsafe type of vehicle.
If this was a private company making outlandish claims, all hell would break loose. When the media does it, oh well, we'll listen tomorrow to see what other news is occurring.
This is why you never trust anything you hear or read until you can verify it multiple times. I also don't just automatically assume something is terrorism, because 99% of the time it's not, it's just stuff like this were it was a tragic accident.
That said, I agree with the other poster that I actually didn't see this labeled terrorism anywhere outside of the usual garbage dumps like Fox, MSNBC, etc. Everywhere else, they were pretty quick to point out it wasn't and this was just an isolated accident.