A SCHOOL BUS is seen partially tipped into a sink hole on East 180th Street and Bronx Park Avenue in the West Farms section of The Bronx on May 20, 2026. V1 Video by Síle Moloney

One patient was hospitalized on Wednesday, May 20, after a school bus partially slid into a sinkhole in the West Farms section of The Bronx. FDNY/EMS officials said they were alerted to the incident at 1.36 p.m. at 1122 East 180th Street, located between Devoe Avenue and Bronx Park Avenue.

 

There, they found a school bus in a sinkhole and said one patient was transported to St. Barnabas Hospital and that their condition and description are unknown.

When Norwood News arrived at the location, which is close to the East 180th Street subway station, Wings Academy, a local shipping company, and the landmarked Fire Alarm Telegraph Bureau, Bronx Central Office, the bus was seen tilted to one side and the right back wheel was lodged in the sink hole.

 

A tow truck was on site and later pulled the bus out of the hole, which was located on the corner of East 180th Street and Bronx Park Avenue.

FDNY representatives were also on site, seemingly coordinating the extraction of the bus from the hole, while the driver and school children appeared to have been already taken out of the bus.

 

Norwood News spoke a group of construction workers on Bronx Park Avenue, close to the corner where the bus slid into the hole and opposite the site of a local shipping business, Batista Shipping, in front of which was a large tractor trailer.

 

AN NYCTA PARKING lot is seen underneath the East 180th Street subway station in West Farms, The Bronx on May 20, 2026 close to the site of where a school bus slid into a sink hole the same day. V2 Video by Síle Moloney

One female worker who declined to be identified said she saw the accident as it happened and said the kids on the bus looked scared. “Cause, like, it was a lot of, like, falling earth,” she said, adding that she didn’t see anyone hurt.

 

We spoke to local resident, Michael Rangel, who said the hole had been there for quite some time. “I walk around this area pretty frequently and I’ve seen that hole when it was smaller,” he said. We asked if it gradually had gotten more sunken over time, and he said, “Kinda, yeah. Like it wasn’t enough to where if you lost your keys in there, you lost your keys but over the most of like two years I would say, it started to get like bigger and bigger, and it was like it’s going to be an issue, and now, I’m seeing it and it’s an issue.”

Asked if he had seen the children on the bus when the incident happened, he said he hadn’t as he arrived at the scene later. “Honestly, I thought something else had happened and once I saw one of the tires in the pothole, I was like, yeah, that sounds about right.” Rangel added, “It seems like they handled it pretty well. I just hope nobody was hurt.”

 

We mentioned that a woman had just died in Manhattan the previous night after stepping out of her car and falling down a seemingly uncovered manhole. Rangel wasn’t aware but agreed the incident was tragic.

 

Speaking in Spanish and in reference to the sinkhole, another local worker, Hilberto Martinez, said, “I pass it every day and I noticed and thought something could happen there. The students in the school [Wings Academy], I don’t know if they were advised about it or not.”

 

On Wednesday, reacting to the school bus incident, she later said, “Unacceptable! Why does this sinkhole look like this? How could this happen? Please address this now @NYCWater! Children and adults aboard a school bus could’ve been injured.” 

 

The sink hole was later seen cordoned off with cones and temporarily filled in with a traffic cone and ticker tape. We will share any further updates we receive.