Romanch Mahajan<\/a> became the first person to die in a Central Park carriage horse accident since horse drivers began offering rides 150 years ago.\u00a0Mahajan suffered a fatal head injury when the horse pulling his family\u2019s carriage through the park got spooked and darted off, tipping the carriage over.\u00a0A few weeks later, Con Ed detected errant electricity near the accident scene.<\/p>\n\u201cCon Edison observed very low levels of stray voltage on July 16 and July 23,\u201d a statement from the company said. \u201cWe determined that neither instance originated from Con Edison equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though it is unclear whether that stray voltage condition played a role in spooking the horse, the Mahajan family and the union representing New York City carriage horse drivers believe they\u2019re owed more detailed information.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a current running through the ground that has the ability to trigger a horse or trigger an animal,\u201d said Alexander Kemp, the administrative vice president of TWU Local 100.\u00a0He added that his members are uneasy because they don\u2019t know if there might be other electrified pathways where their horses roam.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey would like to know where, and they also want to know why that information or that data hasn\u2019t been collected from the park?\u201d<\/p>\n
Con Edison declined to provide specific data about stray voltage detected in Central Park, citing pending litigation over the horse carriage death.\u00a0But the company says it makes conditions safe and fixes stray voltage problems when they involve utility-owned equipment. When stray voltage is detected in private or city-owned infrastructure, Con Edison says its personnel notify customers so they can make necessary repairs.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s Department of Transportation, which maintains municipal lamp posts and traffic lights, did not respond to questions about its own stray voltage inspections and repairs.\u00a0The DOT does publish annual results of random stray voltage checks, listing the hundreds of intersections where readings are taken.\u00a0But a review of DOT inspections over the last five years includes no mention of any inspection location within Central Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a concern because we don\u2019t know at this point, is the city testing enough?\u201d said Sagar Chadha, the attorney representing Mahajan\u2019s family.\u00a0\u201cHow often are they testing Central Park?\u00a0How often are they testing these areas within the park that could be electrified and carry stray voltage?\u00a0We do not have answers to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mahajan family has filed a notice of intent to sue several city agencies including the DOT.\u00a0Their lawyers said they also intend to name Con Edison and the horse carriage driver as defendants.<\/p>\n
Just before Romanch Mahajan was killed, the TWU says the driver of the horse stepped away from the carriage in order to take a family photo of his customers.\u00a0The union said safety protocols forbid leaving the carriage unattended with a horse uncontrolled.\u00a0 The driver himself has not responded to media requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Although the Mahajan family and the TWU are both calling for more transparency about stray voltage, they are at odds over the future of the carriage horse industry in New York City.<\/p>\n
In the months since the accident, members of the Mahajan family have become some of the most vocal supporters of a City Council bill that would ban carriage horse rides in New York City. The bill, dubbed Romanch\u2019s Law, has the support of Mamdani and the majority of the City Council.\u00a0A spokesperson for Council Speaker Julie Menin said she is ready to pass the bill after it goes through a mandated environmental review.<\/p>\n
But the TWU is lobbying against the ban, arguing this summer\u2019s accident is being used as a pretext to shut down an industry that\u2019s been targeted by animal rights groups for decades. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Deepak Mahajan, Romanch\u2019s father, said he hopes the bill is passed and signed into law, as part of his son\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want a complete ban on horse drawn carriages,\u201d the grieving father told the I-Team from India.\u00a0\u201cWe cannot bring Romanch back, but we can try to make sure that no other family suffers what we have suffered.\u00a0No parent should have to watch their child die in front of them.\u00a0We want Central Park to become a safer place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every year, electrical inspectors sweep New York City for invisible currents pulsing through manhole covers, streetlight poles, fences,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4484,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-352280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-i-team","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352280","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=352280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}