It looked like an ordinary afternoon commute — until the road literally disappeared.
In a heart-stopping moment caught in broad daylight, a massive sinkhole ripped open beneath traffic in Omaha’s Aksarben neighborhood on Feb. 24, swallowing two vehicles and turning a busy intersection into a scene of chaos.
According to the Omaha Police Department, officers raced to 67th and Pacific Street just after 3:30 p.m. on reports of a crash. What they found was far worse than a fender-bender. A huge section of pavement had collapsed without warning, leaving a gaping crater just east of the intersection — and two vehicles trapped inside it.
A silver Dodge Ram pickup and a maroon Jeep SUV plunged nose-first into the hole as the asphalt gave way. Photos from the scene show both vehicles tilted upward at sharp angles, partially buried in rubble, as if frozen mid-fall.
Miraculously, both drivers survived.
Police say the driver of the pickup somehow climbed out of the sinkhole on his own. Instead of fleeing the terrifying scene, he immediately joined stunned bystanders to help rescue the SUV driver, who was still stuck inside the crater. Together, they managed to pull the second driver to safety.
Against all odds, no injuries were reported.
Authorities immediately shut down Pacific Street from 66th to 69th Street, closing both eastbound and westbound traffic. Only north-south traffic on 67th Street remains open. Officials confirmed the visible damage stretches across both westbound lanes — but the collapse extends underground, raising alarming questions about how stable the surrounding roadway really is.
Both vehicles were eventually hauled out of the sinkhole and towed away.
As crews continue investigating what triggered the sudden collapse, shaken residents are left with an unsettling reality: in a split second, the ground beneath them simply gave out.
One moment, it was a normal drive through the city. The next, it was a plunge into a crater.
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