A 43-year-old man is fighting for his life after a northbound Bx41 bus struck him on Webster Avenue near East 171st Street in the Bronx early Sunday, police said. The man suffered severe head trauma and was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital in critical condition. The 37-year-old bus driver stayed at the scene and faced no immediate charges.
Investigators believe the man stepped into the roadway mid-block when he was hit, according to New York Daily News. The Bx41 is a local route that runs between Williamsbridge and The Hub via Webster Avenue, according to the MTA, cutting straight through the stretch of the Bronx where Sunday's crash happened.
A Stretch of Webster Avenue With a Painful History
This isn't the first time a Bx41 has been involved in a tragedy on Webster Avenue. In 2018, an MTA bus driver fatally struck 7-year-old Shevon Bethea, who was riding a scooter near Webster Avenue and East 184th Street, according to Streetsblog NYC. Reports said Bethea sustained trauma to his body and died at Saint Barnabas Hospital, the same facility now treating Sunday's victim, though the exact circumstances of that earlier crash differed from this one.
Under New York law, pedestrians crossing outside a marked crosswalk or an unmarked intersection crosswalk are required to yield the right of way to vehicles on the roadway, according to New York Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 1152(a), as published by the New York State Senate. That statute speaks to the broader rules governing mid-block crossings, though it does not resolve what happened in this specific case.
Other Bus-Pedestrian Crashes Across the City
Sunday's crash follows a string of serious bus-pedestrian incidents across the five boroughs this year. In September, a 58-year-old man was fatally struck by an MTA B44 bus in Brooklyn after stumbling into the side of the vehicle, the New York Daily News reported separately. That bus was headed south on Nostrand Avenue in Flatbush and pulling into a stop near Clarendon Road when the man was run over by its rear wheels; he was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital.
Citywide, MTA data cited by The City Reporter showed 84 physical contacts between buses and pedestrians so far in 2026, one fewer than during the same period the year before. The same data showed 61 collisions between buses and bicycles this year, a drop of 26 from 2025, and recorded 275 instances since 2019 of buses coming into contact with micromobility vehicles like e-bikes and scooters, according to The City Reporter.
MTA Pushes Collision-Avoidance Technology
In response to the pattern, the transit agency has been expanding a collision-avoidance system that uses exterior sensors to detect nearby people or objects, alerting drivers with illuminated warnings and occasional beeps, the outlet reported. After testing the technology on six buses, the MTA issued a solicitation last month for a five-year contract to retrofit between 100 and 150 additional buses with the system.
Separately, the NYC Department of Transportation has reported that Vision Zero Priority Corridors in the Bronx saw a 40% decline in pedestrians killed compared with the study period behind its 2019 report, according to the agency. It remains unclear whether Sunday's crash site falls along one of those designated corridors.
No further details on the Webster Avenue victim's identity or his current medical status have been released. The investigation into Sunday's crash remains ongoing.
