The family of a teenage tourist killed after a carriage horse bolted in Central Park asserted in legal filings on Friday that stray electrical current had contributed to his death.
The claim about the stray voltage’s role in the death of the teenager, Romanch Mahajan, was included in four notices of claim filed by his parents against the New York City government and several municipal agencies as a first formal step toward the filing of lawsuits.
The legal action by the Mahajan family comes as the City Council appears set to pass a bill that would banish the carriages from the city in two years. Their absence would be most noticeable in Central Park, where they have been fixtures for more than a century and a half.
Animal-rights activists, who say the carriage trade is outdated and cruel to the horses, have long pushed for such a ban, but they had not previously won enough political support to achieve that goal. The death of Mr. Mahajan, 18, has given that push significant momentum.
He was killed in June after the driver of the carriage he and his family were riding in stepped out to take their picture. The horse, left unattended, got spooked and bolted, and Mr. Mahajan’s mother fell from the carriage. He jumped down to help her, hit his head on the ground and sustained a fatal injury.
The notices of claim accuse the city and the Departments of Parks and Recreation, Health and Mental Hygiene, Transportation and Consumer and Worker Protection of failing to ensure the safety of the carriage industry and the park environment in which it operates.
The notices seek a total of $105 million. They cite a litany of regulatory actions that Mr. Mahajan’s family says the defendants should have taken that could have prevented his death, in matters including the stray voltage, which, they say, “caused, precipitated, contributed to and/or was a substantial factor in” the horse’s becoming agitated and running off. The plaintiffs accuse the city, the agencies and Con Edison, the electrical utility, of knowing about the voltage problem and not addressing it.
Jamie McShane, a Con Edison spokesman, said the utility had “observed very low levels of stray voltage on July 16 and July 23.” He added, “We determined that neither instance originated from Con Edison equipment.” He referred further questions to the city’s Transportation Department, which did not immediately provide a comment on Friday.
Nick Paolucci, a spokesman for the city’s Law Department, called Mr. Mahajan’s death tragic. He said the city would review the notices of claim. He declined further comment.
The allegation that the stray voltage caused the horse to become agitated and bolt echoes one made previously by the Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents carriage drivers and owners and is fighting to keep the industry from being eliminated.
“Blue-collar carriage drivers should not be punished for an unforeseeable hazard caused by flaws in the city’s power grid,” Alexander Kemp, a Local 100 vice president, said in a statement last month.
Mr. Mahajan’s parents have been vocal in pushing for a horse carriage ban since their son’s death, including an emotional appeal to City Council members via videoconference from their home in India last month during a Health Committee hearing on the bill that would impose the ban.
The bill has secured the support of enough Council members to pass. It is currently the subject of an environmental review meant to study its economic impact, a requirement because it would eliminate an entire industry.
It is unclear when the review will be completed. A vote by the Health Committee would potentially come after that, with a vote by the full Council to follow.
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