{"id":273336,"date":"2026-06-21T19:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T19:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/273336\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T19:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T19:32:08","slug":"nyc-bill-to-ban-horse-carriages-to-be-renamed-for-teen-killed-in-central-park-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/273336\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC bill to ban horse carriages to be renamed for teen killed in Central Park crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

The famous City Council bill known as Ryder\u2019s Law that aims to ban horse carriages in the Big Apple will now be called Romanch\u2019s Law \u2014 after the 18-year-old tourist fatally tossed<\/a> during a ride last week.<\/p>\n

The bill was pitched in 2022 by former city Councilman Bob Holden after tragic horse Ryder collapsed on a hot August day and later died and then reintroduced for consideration again this year by Councilman Chris Marte \u2014 who said he will now change its name to honor tragic teen Romanch Mahajan.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, New Yorkers have warned that horse-drawn carriages put passengers, workers, parkgoers, pedestrians, and horses in danger,\u201d Marte\u2019s office said in a statement Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cRomanch\u2019s death follows a series of serious carriage horse incidents, including the recent death of Deniz in Central Park<\/a>, and has made clear that the City can no longer delay action.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed Ryder\u2019s Law will be renamed Romanch\u2019s Law for the 18-year-old who was thrown to his death when a carriage horse bolted in Central Park last week.<\/p>\n

The incident is under investigation, with the carriage driver\u2019s union saying its members are never allowed to leave the vehicle.\u00a0 Jordan Donegan<\/p>\n

The proposed law\u2019s name change is set to be formally announced at an 11 a.m. vigil Monday at the Cherry Hill Fountain in Central Park, where Mahajan, a tourist from India, was killed while on a horse-carriage ride with his family Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Mahajan fatally struck his head while trying to save his mother as their carriage driver allegedly flouted common-sense protocol and got out of the ride to take a picture of the family, leaving the horse to take off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears the driver was at least at arm\u2019s length from his horse. This is unacceptable,\u201d said Alexander Kemp, a vice president of the Transport Workers Union Local 100, which oversees the drivers, in a statement. <\/p>\n

The bill would gradually phase out the carriages. AP Photo\/Seth Wenig<\/p>\n

\u201cA driver is not supposed to leave the carriage to take photos \u2014 ever. We support a full investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The driver has been suspended, and the 7-year-old horse involved, Sampson, was retired.<\/p>\n

Mahajan\u2019s death could to be a turning point in the battle over the horse carriages.<\/p>\n

Council Speaker Julie Menin announced hours after the tragedy that a hearing on Ryder\u2019s Law will take place in July.<\/p>\n

Ryder\u2019s Law was reintroduced by Marte last week after the City Council\u2019s health panel refused to advance it out of committee in November<\/a> \u2014 despite support from the Central Park Conservancy and then-Mayor Eric Adams.<\/p>\n

During his mayoral campaign, now-Mayor Zohran Mamdani had indicated support both for a ban on the carriages as well as the formation of a panel to study the decades-old industry.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRomanch\u2019s Law would end horse-drawn carriages in New York City while creating a pathway for workers to transition into safer, stable jobs,\u201d Marte\u2019s office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil Member Marte, joined by colleagues and advocates, will call on the City Council to act with the urgency this moment demands.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The famous City Council bill known as Ryder\u2019s Law that aims to ban horse carriages in the Big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4709,8395,11634,75,57,9,197,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-273336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-central-park","tag-horse-carriages","tag-horses","tag-manhattan","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273336","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=273336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}