{"id":271241,"date":"2026-06-18T20:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/271241\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T20:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:37:09","slug":"new-york-leaders-push-to-ban-horse-carriage-industry-after-indian-teens-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/271241\/","title":{"rendered":"New York leaders push to ban horse carriage industry after Indian teen’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A teenager from India who was killed<\/a> when a Central Park carriage horse bolted from its driver was on a family trip celebrating his high school graduation and died trying to save his mother.<\/p>\n

Romanch Mahajan, 18, jumped out of the carriage after his mother fell out and hit his head on the ground, his father, Deepak Mahajan, told<\/a> The New York Times. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was screaming, \u2018Mom!\u2019\u201d the young man\u2019s father told the newspaper. Mahajan said he, his wife and younger son escaped with minor injuries, though their carriage clipped another horse-drawn vehicle and toppled over.<\/p>\n

The family arrived in New York from India on Monday, the same day Romanch learned he had been accepted to a university in Jaipur. They had spent the day visiting many of the city\u2019s popular tourist attractions and were unwinding on a carriage ride when the driver got off to photograph them. Moments later, the accident occurred.<\/p>\n

Video<\/a> showed the horse sprinting through the park as two people appeared to jump from the four-wheeled carriage. A second video<\/a> shows the cab toppling over after clipping the wheels of another carriage on the park\u2019s busy loop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis incident should be taken very seriously,\u201d Mahajan said. \u201cIt took my son\u2019s dream away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calls to ban the quaint attraction revived<\/p>\n

Horse carriages, which cost about $72 for the first 20 minutes, were not running Thursday in the park, which sees millions of visitors every year. It was not immediately clear when they would resume. <\/p>\n

The company that owns the carriage involved in the fatal crash also suspended the driver indefinitely, and the horse will be retired from the business, according to the union representing the industry. The union has said the driver dismounted to take a photograph of his passengers, which they are not supposed to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re absolutely gutted and stunned by this tragedy,\u201d said Alexander Kemp, a vice president with the Transport Workers Union Local 100, the labor union representing carriage drivers and owners. \u201cWe have shuttered the stables and ceased operations today while we have extensive internal discussions of safety protocols and how they can be improved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahajan\u2019s death is believed to be the first human fatality involving a horse carriage since they were introduced in Central Park more than 150 years ago, according to the union and the Central Park Conservancy, which manages the 850-acre park.<\/p>\n

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The conservancy was among those on Thursday that called for the industry to be suspended until more protections could be put in place. There have now been eight horse-related incidents in Central Park over the past 13 months, the group said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf any other activity in the Park posed a comparable risk to visitors, it would be suspended immediately while steps were taken to address those dangers,\u201d the conservancy said.<\/p>\n

The influential nonprofit revived the debate<\/a> over the carriages when, for the first time, it threw its support behind a long-simmering bill that would ban horse carriages and help drivers transition into new jobs.<\/p>\n

The organization argued that the carriages are a public safety hazard in the increasingly crowded park, noting that other U.S. cities, including Chicago and San Antonio, have also recently done away with the nostalgic rides.<\/p>\n

Carriage owners and drivers fear end to livelihood<\/p>\n

Animal welfare groups have also long complained that the horses are overworked, can get easily spooked on city streets and live in inadequate stables while their drivers regularly flaunt city rules. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe record is undeniable: crashes, runaways, horse deaths, injuries, and now a devastating loss of human life,\u201d Edita Birnkrant, head of New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Onur Altintas, who owns four horses and a carriage operating in Central Park, said Wednesday\u2019s death was tragic but shouldn\u2019t lead to the industry ending. <\/p>\n

He said the industry provides hundreds of jobs to drivers, stable hands, farriers, and others in horse-related trades.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are sad about what happened. Nobody wants that. But it\u2019s not like this is happening every day,\u201d said Altintas. \u201cCar crashes and plane crashes are happening every single day. One horse makes an accident, and the world is destroyed? Come on.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York City leaders, meanwhile, vowed to work to put an end to the quaint attraction, which harkens back to a romanticized, bygone New York.<\/p>\n

City Council Speaker Julie Menin said the legislative body would hold a hearing next month on Ryder\u2019s Law, the bill backed by the conservancy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe time to act is now,\u201d she wrote on the social platform X.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani also reiterated his support for ending the industry, saying he\u2019d work with the council, the industry and animal welfare advocates to \u201cdeliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the industry were phased out, Altintas said he would have to find another way to support his family and four children. <\/p>\n

Instead, the longtime owner and driver said the industry needs better regulations to make it safer. He said \u201c90%\u201d of horse-related accidents could be avoided simply by installing hitching posts throughout the park so drivers could safely tether and secure their horses, including at popular tourist photo stops.<\/p>\n

The Transport Workers Union on Thursday said legislation introduced into the council last week would do just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrivers can\u2019t leave their carriage. They have to be on it all the time,\u201d Altintas said. \u201cBut it\u2019s impossible. We have to go to the restroom. We have to eat. We have to do things.\u201d<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A teenager from India who was killed when a Central Park carriage horse bolted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7339,101801,35716,288,20945,417,5394,5350,2101,19077,23338,232,1075,24017,9,24,56,63,65,64,104591,4730,1777,23999,421,104592,82],"class_list":["post-271241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-accidents","tag-alexander-kemp","tag-automotive-accidents","tag-business","tag-edita-birnkrant","tag-general-news","tag-il-state-wire","tag-illinois","tag-india","tag-julie-menin","tag-labor-unions","tag-lifestyle","tag-military-and-defense","tag-national-parks","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-onur-altintas","tag-teens","tag-texas","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-u-s-news","tag-x-corp","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271241","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=271241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}