Wednesday’s fiery crash at the Rainbow Bridge led to some anxious moments for law enforcement officials on both sides of the border.
With questions swirling regarding what had actually happened at the downtown border crossing and a heightened sense of tension in the world, news of bridge’s shutdown traveled across the globe.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said that heightened state of alert made the accident even more unsettling.
“We’re not aware of any threats to this area, but the investigation is ongoing,” Hochul said. “The investigation is on-going. The world is watching what happened here. At A time when there is such high anxiety stress levels are high and we’ve been on heightened alert since Oct. 7, that’s why it’s so important for me to stand here and tell the world that based on what we know at this moment, and again, anything can change, there is no sign of terrorist activity with respect to this crash.”
Both U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were briefed soon afterward, and Trudeau excused himself from Question Period in the House of Commons to get further information, saying officials were “taking this extraordinarily seriously.”
The Rainbow Bridge and the three other spans between Western New York and Ontario were closed as a precaution, though the other three later reopened. The Buffalo-Niagara International Airport began security checks on all cars and told passengers to expect additional screenings.
The safety measures tied up traffic at the airport and elsewhere on one of the busiest U.S. travel days of the year, ahead of the American Thanksgiving holiday.
Sanchit Chatha, his wife Reyshu and their 13-year-old daughter, Trisha, had stopped in Niagara Falls for lunch en route home to Toronto from Buffalo when they started getting news notifications about the explosion. Worried friends called, knowing the family was in the area.
Trisha was concerned at seeing the bridges to Canada shut down, her mother said.
“She has a math test tomorrow,” the mother explained as the family waited to find out when the crossings would open.
In Toronto, about 100 miles away, police said they were increasing patrols as a precaution. New York City police were monitoring the news from Buffalo but already had boosted security at various spots because of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday.
About 6,000 vehicles cross the Rainbow Bridge each day, according to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory. About 5% is truck traffic, according to the federal data.