A teenager thrown to the ground Wednesday when a Central Park carriage horse bolted away from its driver has died, according to police.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old was riding in the horse-drawn carriage with three other passengers when the accident happened just before 3 p.m., according to the New York Police Department. At least two passengers were sent flying out of the careening cab.<\/p>\n
The teenager was initially hospitalized in critical condition. The other passengers refused medical treatment.<\/p>\n
A representative for the Transport Workers Union, which represents carriage industry employees, said the driver had dismounted to take a photograph of his passengers, which they are not supposed to do.<\/p>\n
The horse had been in the park for only six weeks, according to Alexander Kemp, the administrative vice president of the union\u2019s local chapter. He said he wants a full investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSafety in the park has been a growing concern among many, and improvements are needed to be made with respect to all vehicles, including e-bicycles, delivery vehicles, pedicabs, and horse-drawn carriages,\u201d he said in a statement. <\/p>\n
Video showed the horse sprinting through the park as two people appeared to jump from the four-wheeled carriage. A second video shows the cab toppling over after clipping the wheels of another carriage on the park\u2019s busy loop.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a fraught moment for Central Park\u2019s 150-year-old horse-drawn carriage industry, which is facing the growing threat of a ban from opponents who say the rides are both inhumane to horses and a danger to city residents.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s event follows several recent horse-related problems in the park, including the fatal collapse of a horse last week.<\/p>\n
The Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit which operates the park and came out last summer in support of banning horse-drawn carriages, said the back-to-back events should bring an end to the industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cA young man came to enjoy our park and lost his life,\u201d the group said in a statement. \u201cThat is not an acceptable cost of an antiquated industry operating in the middle of one of the most heavily used public spaces in America.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A teenager thrown to the ground Wednesday when a Central Park carriage horse bolted away from its driver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-270342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}