Just a few observations about the wild car crash at the Rainbow Bridge that briefly got Niagara Falls into the global headlines, until it was determined that the crash had nothing to do with terrorism. All images are from Google Earth or Street View.
The car, proceeding west along Niagara Street toward the bridge at very high speed, moved in a straight line to the scene of the crash. Clearly the driver was pressing the accelerator but not steering. The yellow line shows the course of the car, from right to left.
The car became airborne, at very high speed, and jumped this fence.
The car must have drifted into the oncoming lanes of Niagara Street, as seen in the following image. The fence can be seen in the foreground of the white van in the distance. The car tilted to the passenger (starboard) side while aloft, and exploded upon impact with the ground.
This makes it seem that no steering was being done at all. The original destination was a concert in Toronto, which explains why it had a full tank of fuel.
If the intention of the driver was to inflict damage, this car was an illogical choice. He could have rented a truck.
If the intention was suicide, the driver would not have accelerated to high speed and then aimed for the fence. The other side of the fence would have been open, as seen in the following image to let cars from Canada through, and he could easily have steered around the fence. The fence might have slowed the car without stopping it. Surveillance video shows no traffic blocking the open side of the fence as the crash happened.
The obvious conclusion is that the crash was caused by a tragic medical event, but the driver continued pressing the accelerator. This is not as uncommon as we might think. I was in a parking lot once. A car accelerated and hit a wall. The car bounced off the wall and accelerated into the wall again. It was determined to have been caused by a medical event.
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