{"id":322666,"date":"2026-08-16T19:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/322666\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T19:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:08:10","slug":"family-of-teen-killed-in-tragic-central-park-horse-carriage-mishap-to-sue-nyc-for-105m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/322666\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of teen killed in tragic Central Park horse carriage mishap to sue NYC for $105M"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of the 18-year-old tourist who was killed during a Central Park carriage ride will sue the city for $105 million \u2014 claiming a freak electrical current made the horse bolt.<\/p>\n

Romanch Mahajan\u2019s kin maintains the teen was thrown to his death<\/a> after the horse got spooked by the stray voltage and took off as the driver snapped a photo of the family, who were visiting from India, according to documents cited by The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Romanch Mahajan, 18, was thrown to his death during a Central Park carriage ride wit his family.<\/p>\n

The notice of claim \u2014 a document announcing an intent to sue \u2014 was filed Friday, citing Con Edison and several city agencies, the Times reported.<\/p>\n

It claims the utility and Big Apple officials knew there was a \u201cstray voltage\u201d problem at the site before the June 17 tragedy, yet failed to address it, according to the report.<\/p>\n

The filing comes as the City Council weighs a ban<\/a> on the historic carriage rides, which have been part of the Manhattan landscape for well over a century.<\/p>\n

Mahajan, his parents and his 11-year-old brother had arrived from India for a dream vacation just three days before the teen was tossed from a buggy, smashed his head on the ground and died.<\/p>\n

He fell while trying to catch his mom<\/a>, who was also thrown from the runaway carriage but survived, relatives have said.<\/p>\n

A sequence of video grabs shows the moment Romanch Mahajan was thrown from a horse carriage and killed. <\/p>\n

Her son\u2019s death was captured on heart-pounding video<\/a> footage that showed the carriage driver chasing the horse and buggy in vain before it struck a curb and toppled over.<\/p>\n

Con Ed spokesman Jamie McShane told The Times that the utility had \u201cobserved very low levels of stray voltage on July 16 and July 23,\u201d but determined that it was not coming from their equipment.<\/p>\n

How the Post covered the tragic death of teen tourist Romanch Mahajan in June. <\/p>\n

The city Law Department declined to comment and said it was reviewing the document. <\/p>\n

The tragic mishap came amid a yearslong debate over the carriages, and added fuel to the push by animal rights activists and others to ban them. <\/p>\n

From left, Priya, Romanch Mahajan, Deepak, and Maanik pose in a horse carriage on June 18,in Central Park. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cThese incidents demonstrate that it\u2019s time to chart a better path forward that addresses animal welfare and public safety, and also ensures the livelihood and economic prosperity of the workers,\u201d Council Speaker Julie Menin said following the incident.<\/p>\n

Queens Democratic Councilman James Gennaro bemoaned the \u201cunthinkable tragedy\u201d \u2014 but maintained it was due to \u201chuman error,\u201d which had nothing to do with animal welfare.<\/p>\n

He said he opposed an outright ban on the industry, and instead is proposing alternative legislation to tighten safety standards, including installing hitching posts in Central Park where horses can be secured when passengers get into or out of the carriages or want to take pictures, as well as more rigorous training for drivers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of the 18-year-old tourist who was killed during a Central Park carriage ride will sue the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4709,1168,8395,11634,3100,75,57,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-322666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-central-park","tag-con-edison","tag-horse-carriages","tag-horses","tag-lawsuit","tag-manhattan","tag-metro","tag-new-york","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\/322666","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=322666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}