New York City Central Park rides halted after fatal fall from horse-drawn carriage

NEW YORK – Horse-drawn carriages, a fixture in Central Park since its creation, were noticeably absent on June 18 after drivers halted service following the death of a teenage tourist.

It was unclear how long the voluntary shutdown might last. A spokesperson for the drivers’ union said members were deliberating over their next steps in response to a deadly event that had given new momentum to those who want to ban horse carriages in New York City.

Alexander Kemp, a vice president of the union, Transport Workers Union Local 100, said members were “absolutely gutted and stunned” by the death of Romanch Mahajan, 18, who was visiting the city from India with his parents and younger brother.

Mahajan fell from a carriage when the horse bolted as the driver took a picture of the young man with his family. The cause of death was blunt force trauma and the manner an accident, a spokesperson for the chief medical examiner’s office said.

“We’ve never had a fatal accident like this before,” Kemp said in a statement. “We have shuttered the stables and ceased operations today while we have extensive internal discussions on what transpired and how it could have been prevented.”

The union, its members and their supporters have been locked in a long-running clash with animal welfare activists, some public officials and, most recently, the organisation that runs the park over whether the city’s horse carriage trade should be ended.

Those pushing for a ban say the practice is outdated and inhumane. The union says that the horses are well cared for, that banishing them would kill jobs and that carriage rides remain a popular attraction.

The debate over the industry’s future has flared again in June, first with the death of a carriage horse that a preliminary examination showed had eaten a toxic plant, and then with the death of Mahajan.

Late week, Julie Menin, the City Council speaker, and Lynn Schulman, who leads the council’s health committee, said they would schedule a hearing in July on a bill that would rid the city of carriage horses.

“The time to act is now,” they said in a social media post.

A similar ban failed to get a hearing in the council’s previous term, and neither Menin, a Manhattan Democrat, nor Shulman, a Queens Democrat, expressed public support for it then.

Menin, in a statement on June 18, said the deaths of the horse, Deniz, and of Mahajan, “demonstrate that it’s 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”.

“Horse welfare, public safety and the economic future of carriage drivers are not mutually exclusive goals,” she added. “I’m confident that we can bring all parties together to achieve a responsible solution.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani adopted a similar tone in a statement on the night of June 17, saying he hoped to work with all interested parties “to deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all”.

But John Samuelsen, the international president of the Transport Workers Union, said in an interview on June 18 that those who want to ban the carriages were exploiting what he and his members agreed was a tragedy to promote their views.

He said claims that having horses pull carriages is a form of animal cruelty, which have been the primary motivator for ban supporters, were baseless and needed to be “decoupled” from questions about whatever failures by the carriage driver had led to Mahajan’s death.

The union and its members were committed to addressing those questions.

“We are going to work to ensure safe vehicular traffic of all kinds in the park,” he said.

For the Mahajans, the fatal carriage ride was meant to be a relaxing outing on the family’s first visit to New York, a trip that had already included stops at the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 Memorial and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Deepak Mahajan, Romanch’s father, said they were in the park when they booked a ride with the driver, identified as Ertan Gokdepe by a law enforcement official who requested anonymity to discuss a continuing investigation. Efforts to reach Gokdepe were unsuccessful.

The family agreed to pay Gokdepe US$158 (S$203.90) for a 45-minute ride with several stops, and Gokdepe taking three pictures along the way was part of the package, Mahajan said.

He had taken two pictures of the family in the cab at other spots before arriving near the fountain at Cherry Hill at about 2.45pm. As he had the previous times, Gokdepe left the carriage to get the shot.

The horse, a 7-year-old named Sampson who had been working in the park for only six weeks, bolted a split-second later, Deepak Mahajan said. When his wife, Priya, fell out of the carriage, Romanch jumped down to try to help her, and hit his head on the ground, Mahajan said.

The circumstances under which Gokdepe, who the union said had been suspended indefinitely by the carriage’s owner, was taking pictures is likely to draw scrutiny.

Kemp, the union vice president, said on June 17 that what Gokdepe had done was “unacceptable” and that “a driver is not supposed to leave the carriage to take photos – ever.”NYTIMES

• This article originally appeared in The New York Times.