A runaway horse carriage careened through Central Park on Wednesday afternoon and then overturned, critically injuring an 18-year-old man, the police said.
Video posted on X shows a horse carriage jumping from the sidewalk to the lawn at high speed and rounding a corner as a person falls out of it. Another video apparently shot moments later shows the carriage speeding on a roadway in the park, clipping another horse carriage and then tipping over and landing in pieces.
The collision happened around 2:45 p.m., the police said. The Central Park Conservancy, which runs the park, said that horse went out of control at Cherry Hill, near 72nd Street and West Drive on the west side of the park, and bolted down West Drive before hitting the other carriage near Tavern on the Green.
A law enforcement official identified the injured man as Romanch Mahajan, a tourist visiting from India, and said that he had hit his head. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The injured man was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, the Fire Department said. No further details about his injuries were immediately available.
The horse, a 7-year-old named Sampson, was unhurt, according to Christina Hansen, a carriage driver and a spokeswoman for the union that represents drivers, Transport Workers Union Local 100, who came to help out when she heard the news.
The accident, the latest in a series of mishaps involving carriage horses, immediately led to renewed calls from animal advocates, elected officials and the conservancy to ban the carriages from the park.
“This is yet another serious and terrifying incident involving a carriage horse in Central Park, and it should make clear to everyone that delay is no longer defensible,” City Councilman Christopher Marte, who has introduced a bill to ban carriages at the end of next year, said in a statement.
Edita Birnkrant, the executive director of NYCLASS, which has waged a yearslong effort to end the carriage-horse trade, said that the accident was “the perfect example of why there is no amount of regulation or reform that will stop these horses from spooking and putting lives at risk, their own and the public.”
The park conservancy said that there had been eight “horse-related incidents” in or near the park since May 2025, including one last month where a horse hit another carriage and caused it to tip over and one in January where a horse ran into oncoming traffic and hit several cars. Last week, a carriage horse named Deniz died after eating Japanese yew, a plant that is toxic to horses, in the park.
There are more than 100 carriage horses in Manhattan, the union said. Supporters of the industry maintain that it is safe.
Early Wednesday evening, the carriage was still overturned on West Drive, its front wheels broken off its body.
Ms. Hansen said that when she got to the scene around 3 p.m., she found Sampson still connected to the horse shafts. “He was a little worked up, but he was standing there quietly,” she said.
Md Shafi Islam, 58, who operates an ice cream and hot-dog stand near where the crash happened, said he had seen a carriage, with two young passengers inside, speeding up West Drive.
“The horse was going so fast — he was running and running,” Mr. Islam said.
But Mr. Islam said he hadn’t seen a driver sitting in the carriage.
“This is my first time I see that,” he said. “I don’t believe it. My God. I was thinking this is going to be a bad accident.”
About 10 seconds later he saw what appeared to be the driver running after the carriage, before it veered east into the park and out of his sight.
“He was fast, but the horse was faster,” he said.
Chelsia Rose Marcius contributed reporting.
The post Horse Carriage Overturns in Central Park, Critically Injuring Man appeared first on New York Times.
