An 18-year-old has died following a violent crash involving a runaway horse carriage in Central Park on Wednesday afternoon, officials said.
The NYPD confirmed the man’s death several hours after the horse bolted away from its driver, leaving its passengers unable to slow the ride until the horse eventually crashed into another carriage near Tavern on the Green, a popular restaurant off West 67th Street. Cellphone video captured the collision.
The impact of the crash toppled the carriage onto its side, sending the 18-year-old passenger, identified as Romanch Mahajan, out and onto the ground. Police said the young man smacked his head against the pavement and was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition. Mahajan, a tourist from India, ultimately died from his injuries.
Officers said the rest of the family members inside the carriage only had minor injuries.
Another horse carriage driver worker said she received a call about the crash and rushed to the scene to help out. Christina Hansen said she checked on the animal and tied the horse to a nearby pole.
“I drove my horse over here. At that point, this horse had flipped over a carriage,” Hansen said. “The horse is absolutely fine.”
Hansen said she spoke to the driver of the runaway carriage who had returned to the area where the horse bolted, and who was “very, very shaken up.”
The Transport Workers Union, which oversees the horse carriage industry, said it supported a “full investigation” of the incident.
“It appears the driver was at least at arm’s length from his horse to take a photo of his passengers in the carriage. The horse, which had been in the park for only six weeks, took off for unknown reasons,” Alexander Kemp, administrative vice president of TWU Local 100, said in a statement.
“This is unacceptable. A driver is not supposed to leave the carriage to take photos — ever,” the statement said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office said in a statement that he had been briefed on “the horrific incident in Central Park that took someone’s life” and called for an end to the horse carriage industry in the city’s parks.
Wednesday’s incident in Central Park comes the week after a 16-year-old horse named Deniz died from reportedly eating a toxic plant lining the park.
The recent incidents involving carriage horses have sparked renewed attention to Ryder’s Law, a bill under consideration by the New York City Council to wind down the industry in Central Park.
The Central Park Conservancy in a statement about the incident reiterated its call to ban horse carriages in the park.
“A young man came to enjoy our park and lost his life,” the statement said. “That is not an acceptable cost of an antiquated industry operating in the middle of one of the most heavily used public spaces in America.”
