{"id":274448,"date":"2026-06-22T20:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T20:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/274448\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T20:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T20:58:08","slug":"zero-sum-game-manhattan-pol-says-horse-carriage-industry-must-be-banned-in-nyc-after-teens-death-despite-drivers-union-safety-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/274448\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Zero\u2019 sum game? Manhattan pol says horse carriage industry must be banned in NYC after teen\u2019s death, despite drivers\u2019 union safety efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers and advocates holding a vigil inside Central Park for Romanch Mahajan \u2014 the teenager killed in a horse carriage accident<\/a> last week \u2014 argued on Monday that another such death is inevitable if the city does not move immediately to ban the industry.<\/p>\n

City Council Member Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan), who recently re-introduced legislation to outlaw horse carriages in the city, pushed back on how the union that represents carriage drivers and owners \u2014 TWU Local 100<\/a> \u2014 responded to Mahajan\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Mahajan \u2014 an 18-year-old tourist from India \u2014 was killed when the horse pulling the hansom cab he was riding in bolted and ultimately flipped its cargo over. That sent him to the ground, where he suffered severe head trauma.<\/p>\n

It came after another incident in which a carriage horse named Deniz collapsed and died<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\"\"City Council Member Christopher Marte renamed \u2018Ryder\u2019s Law\u2019 after Romanch Mahajan and he was killed in a horse carriage accident last week. Monday, June 22, 2026.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

Marte took issue with the union\u2019s insistence that the horse carriage industry can continue to operate as long as\u00a0it takes a\u00a0\u201cVision Zero\u201d approach<\/a>, in which it does\u00a0everything possible to prevent deaths and injuries going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way you get Vision Zero in Central Park is by having no horse carriages here,\u201d Marte said during the event at the Cherry Hill area inside Central Park.\n<\/p>\n

TWU did not immediately respond to the remarks from the vigil.\n<\/p>\n

Following Mahajan\u2019s death last Wednesday, Local 100 leaders halted horse carriage tours from Thursday through Monday<\/a> and said they were using that pause to give drivers a refresher training and come up with new protocols to ensure they keep better control of their horses. They also called on the city to work with them to install hitching posts throughout the park where drivers can tie horses to prevent them from bolting.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Local 100 Administrative Vice President Alexander Kemp said the union has held discussions over the past four days that have centered on the importance of adding hitching posts.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur discussions with drivers and carriage owners over the last four days have reinforced our belief that hitching posts should be installed in the park,\u201d Kemp said. \u201cThis is a commonsense safety upgrade that would enable drivers to tether their horses and prevent them from straying. We have suggested hitching posts as a preventative measure for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Marte said horses are just too unpredictable for any of those potential solutions to work.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no training, there\u2019s no protocols in place that can stop a reaction from a horse in a split second,\u201d the council member said. \u201cIt just takes one second for a horse to be shocked, lose its focus, and run off, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"NYCLASS Excutive Director Edita said there is no way to prevent a horse from \u2018spooking and killing someone.\u2019 Monday, June 22, 2026.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

Edita Birnkrant, executive director of the group New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets (NYCLASS) echoed the same point, that theree is no amount of regulation that can prevent future dangerous incidents involving carriage horses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no way to prevent the next horse from spooking and harming or killing someone,\u201d she said. \u201cThe hardest-wired instinct in a horse is to run when they\u2019re frightened, and there is endless frightening stimuli.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Ryder\u2019s Law to Romanch\u2019s Law<\/p>\n

During the event, Marte announced that he is renaming his measure to end the horse carriage industry, \u201cRomanch\u2019s Law,\u201d changing it from its previous name, \u201cRyder\u2019s Law.\u201d He also read a pair of statements from Mahajan\u2019s family, addressed to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, supporting the bill and condemning the carriage industry for planning to resume operations on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are officially calling on the New York City Council and the mayor to take immediate, decisive action, we demand an immediate action of the passage of Romanch\u2019s Law to permanently phase-out horse-drawn carriages before another life is lost,\u201d the family\u2019s statement read. \u201cAllowing horse carriages back onto the streets, while our family is planning a funeral, proves that the city values tourism over human life. We urge you to work with the City Council speaker to shut down these operations permanently before another tragedy occurs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kemp said there will be \u201csafety teams\u201d in the park on Tuesday, when drivers return to giving tours, to offer training and provide oversight.
\n\"\"A vigil for Romanch Mahajan in Central Park, where he died last week in a carriage horse accident. Monday, June 22, 2026.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell\n<\/p>\n

Mamdani has previously said he supports banning horse carriages specifically within Central Park, where they primarily operate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mayor has been clear about his position: it is time to end the horse carriage industry in our parks,\u201d Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement. \u201cWe look forward to working with City Council, union partners, carriage drivers, animal welfare advocates, and community leaders to deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

While City Council Speaker Julie Menin has yet to throw her full support behind a ban, she said last week that it is \u201ctime to act\u201d following the incident<\/a> and that she has scheduled a July 15 hearing for the bill.<\/p>\n

Marte\u2019s bill would phase out the industry by requiring the city to stop issuing new carriage driver licenses while simultaneously banning their operation. Additionally, it would mandate that the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection create a program to retrain carriage drivers for other jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lawmakers and advocates holding a vigil inside Central Park for Romanch Mahajan \u2014 the teenager killed in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[101801,4709,37503,105601,101804,20945,8395,105602,22925,9,56,63,65,64,20946,613,104360,8823,8824],"class_list":["post-274448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-alexander-kemp","tag-central-park","tag-city-council-speaker-julie-menin","tag-council-member-christopher-marte","tag-deniz","tag-edita-birnkrant","tag-horse-carriages","tag-mahajans-law","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nyclass","tag-pm-newsletter","tag-romanch-mahajan","tag-ryders-law","tag-twu-local-100"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274448","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=274448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}