who was killed last month<\/a> when he was thrown from a runaway carriage in Central Park after the horse was spooked
\n
The bill would provide training to transition drivers into new jobs before a total ban in 2028, as well as retire the horses to sanctuaries<\/p>\nThe earliest the bill could be voted on is August<\/p>\n
If adopted, the legislation would begin phasing out carriages before a total ban by June 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe took his last breath in his mother\u2019s arm, while his 11-year-old brother and I stood watching,\u201d Deepak Mahajan, Romanch Mahajan\u2019s father, said.<\/p>\n
Deepak Mahajan testified before the City Council over Zoom from India in support of the bill named after his son.<\/p>\n
Romanch\u2019s aunt also pleaded to the Council to ensure that her nephew is the last person to die from the industry.<\/p>\n
Emotions were high all around \u2014 from animal rights activists who support a ban to carriage drivers who are against it.<\/p>\n
The bill would provide training to transition drivers into new jobs before the 2028 total ban, as well as retire the horses to sanctuaries.<\/p>\n
The bill was formerly named Ryder\u2019s Law after a horse that was caught on video in 2022 collapsing in Hell\u2019s Kitchen and ultimately died.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy original bill would have banned horse-drawn carriages in New York City June 1 of this year. Romanch died on June 17,\u201d former City Council Member Robert Holden, original sponsor of the bill, said.<\/p>\n
Former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams would not bring the bill for a vote. This time, however, Council Speaker Julie Menin says she supports the legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, when you combine a public space teeming with tens of millions of people and animals that weigh more than 1,000 pounds and possess an instinct to flee, accidents and collisions become inevitable,\u201d Menin said.<\/p>\n
According to the city, the horse carriage industry is made up of 160 horses, 68 carriages and 208 licensed drivers, who are represented by the Transport Workers Union.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s [been going for] more than 200 years,\u201d John Chiarello, president of TWU Local 100, said. \u201cWe\u2019re all sad for the family, but think of all these immigrant laborers who have a job, but won\u2019t have a job anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a horse person. I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky. Horse capital of the world. I own a horse. His name is Sherman Oaks, but he\u2019s 12 years old. I expect him to live for another 20 years. And this bill is telling me that I can\u2019t go work with my horse in another place to pull a horse and carriage,\u201d Christina Hansen, a carriage driver, said.<\/p>\n
Drivers say they need to be made whole. Many owners took out loans to buy their carriage medallions, and they\u2019re basically small businesses. Menin said all of that is under discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe path forward must protect the workers. We have to address the medallion owners. All of that has to be negotiated, and I\u2019m deeply committed to negotiate that,\u201d Menin said.<\/p>\n
The Mahjan family has retained a lawyer who says they plan to take action against the city.<\/p>\n
There are over 20 cosponsors of Romanch\u2019s Law, and the Council needs 26 votes to pass legislation. The mayor says he supports the law but is also concerned about having more worker protections in the bill. <\/p>\n
The earliest the bill could be voted on is August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City Council held a hearing Wednesday to consider a bill, known as Romanch\u2019s Law, that would phase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[109,387,25,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,87,308,298,27],"class_list":["post-297077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-public-safety","tag-samantha-liebman","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297077","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=297077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}