New York to ban Central Park's horse-drawn carriages after teen's death

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City lawmakers plan to ban horse-drawn carriages from Central Park, ending their more than 150-year run as an iconic, old-timey tourist attraction, following decades of opposition from animal welfare activists and the death of a teenage tourist last spring.

The City Council is expected to approve a bill next week that would end the rides by 2028. Three consecutive mayors had called for an end to the carriage rides because of safety concerns, only to have lawmakers yank back the reins.

A spokesperson for Julie Menin, the council speaker, confirmed the incoming vote and said the proposal had enough support to pass. Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office said he had reached a deal with the speaker on the legislation.

“The horse carriage industry is coming to an end in New York City,” Mamdani said in a social media post.

The latest push for a ban started in June, when 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan, visiting the city from India, died after jumping from a runaway horse carriage during a ride with family members. His death, which appeared to be the first fatality in a horse carriage accident since they were introduced in Central Park, reignited the debate over whether carriages, a romantic throwback to the city's past, have a place in a modern metropolis.

Mahajan's family has appeared at City Hall, in person and through videoconference calls from India, begging the city to finally end the rides.

“We are shattered, our whole family shattered. The pain does not go away,” his father, Deepak Mahajan, told city council members via a videocall during a hearing for the bill last summer, saying his son leapt from the carriage to try and help his mother, who was flung from her seat, after the horse bolted. “Every morning we wake up and think of nothing but the loss of our son.”

For decades, animal welfare activists and other critics have decried the carriage industry, arguing horses shouldn't be hauling tourists around busy streets and Central Park while having to navigate bustling traffic and gawking passersby. In the past, horses have collapsed, gotten startled and run off, hitting cars or other objects, with each accident resulting in fresh calls for a ban.

“The tragic and preventable death of 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan made clear that the status quo is no longer acceptable. Horse-drawn carriages have long been part of New York City’s history, but in an increasingly busy Central Park, this tradition has become a growing public safety liability,” Menin said in a statement.

The industry and its supporters have long cast the rides as a way for visitors to experience the New York they know from classic movies and television.

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse danced into one of the carriages in “The Band Wagon.” Robert Redford and Jane Fonda rode one in “Barefoot in the Park.” Macaulay Culkin escaped bandits in a carriage in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”

“Taking a horse and carriage ride in New York City is one of the most iconic things to do in New York City and people from all over the world know about us and travel to New York to go to a carriage ride in New York,” Conor McHugh, a longtime carriage driver, told the Council earlier this year.

Efforts to close down the industry have been met with pushback from unions and influential supporters, often resulting in tiresome political fights that have seen mayors throw up their hands over nagging worries about putting carriage drivers out of work and what to do with the horses if they can no longer work.

Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen said the Council's bill has “no meaningful economic relief for workers” and that Menin “used the tragic death of a tourist to contrive a public safety crisis.”

“This is disgraceful political opportunism, and Zohran should not simply go along with it, particularly when immigrant families’ livelihoods are being destroyed. This entire situation is reprehensible,” he said in a statement.

The proposal as written would require the mayor's office to develop a workforce transition plan for drivers, and includes a measure that would allow the city to consider some kind of compensation for industry workers. Carriage owners could not sell their horses off for slaughter, according to the bill's language, which requires that horses be disposed of in a “humane manner.”

The mayor's predecessor, Eric Adams, called for ending the industry during the waning days of his administration, but the proposal went nowhere. The mayor before that, Bill de Blasio, had pledged to eliminate the rides on day one of his administration but abandoned the crusade after heavy opposition from unions and a media blitz involving actor Liam Neeson.

Over the years, the city has placed various safety regulations around the industry, including a requirement that the horses get at least five weeks of vacation a year outside of city limits with daily access to a pasture. The horses are inspected by a veterinarian twice a year, and the maximum age they can work at is 26, according to city regulations. And they don't work when it is hotter than 89 degrees.