NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 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
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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. The industry has long been seen as a quaint attraction that offers tourists a romantic remnant of a bygone New York, while providing hundreds of jobs to drivers, along with many farm and racing horses. But they are now 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
Central Park is nearly 850 acres and attracts millions of people every year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A teenager thrown to the ground Wednesday when a Central Park carriage horse bolted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[417,9,56,63,65,64,4730,608,19448,421],"class_list":["post-271849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-general-news","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-teens","tag-transportation","tag-transportation-and-shipping","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271849","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=271849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}