Animal-rights advocates urged Mayor Zohran Mamdani to unilaterally ban Central Park’s iconic horse carriages after a teen tourist’s tragic death – as the hansom cabbies’ union suspended passenger rides through Monday.
Carriage drivers will review procedures during the “safety stand-down” called by the Transport Workers Union of America Local 100 union Friday, as opponents of the horse-drawn rides renewed calls to shut down the industry for good in light of 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan death.
“There must not be one more turn of a horse-drawn carriage wheel in New York City ever again,” Edita Birnkrant, head of New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets, told The Post on Friday.
“No amount of regulation or reform can eliminate the risk by a 2,000-pound animal hard-wired to flee when frightened from bolting and claiming another life,” she said.
“The operation of the carriages is currently under a self-imposed shutdown and Mayor Mamdani must make that shutdown permanent by executive order before another life is lost.”
The renewed push to stop the longtime tourist attraction in the Manhattan park comes after a carriage horse took off Wednesday with a family from India in tow and while the driver was out of the buggy to snap a photo of the tourists, law enforcement sources have said.
Gut-punching footage shows the animal race off and throw Mahajan to the ground before the buggy crashes.
PETA also called on the mayor to halt the green space’s 68 carriages through executive order while the City Council considers the passage of Ryder’s Law, which would ban those types of rides in Central Park.
“The fatal carriage incident this week — just one week after a horse named Deniz collapsed and died — was completely preventable, and is what happens when City Council sits on its hands and does nothing,” the organization said, referencing a carriage horse that died last week after eating a toxic plant in the park.
“They need to get these dangerous carriages off the streets.”
The Mamdani administration did not return an message seeking comment Friday. But the democratic socialist said on the campaign trail and since taking office in January that he supported a ban on the carriage rides, which have been around since the park opened in 1858.
The mayor said as recently as June 10 that he would work to “deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all.”
Council Speaker Julie Menin announced Friday that she was scheduling a July 15 hearing about the law, named after Ryder, a horse who collapsed on the job in August 2022 and was later euthanized.
“The death of Romanch Mahajan was a horrific tragedy, and after a series of deeply troubling incidents, it is clear that the status quo is no longer acceptable,” the Upper East Side Democrat said in a statement to The Post.
The Council hearing will involve all stakeholders and focus on public safety, animal welfare and the livelihoods of carriage drivers, she said.
The carriage driver involved in the tragedy, Ertan Gokdepe, had few words to offer outside his Queens home Friday afternoon.
“Rest in peace,” the distraught man softly said when asked if he had a message for the grieving family, who were said to have returned to India.
Alexander Kemp, the administrative vice president of TWU Local 100, also stressed drivers’ “hearts go out to the family of Romanch Mahajan, whose accidental death was caused by blunt force trauma, according to the city medical examiner’s office.
“Words can’t express the enormity of this tragedy. We are taking the first steps towards address safety issues,” Kemp said, adding the union was re-doubling its efforts to prevent future accidents.
Carriages won’t be roving across the park between Friday and Sunday, as drivers were expected to attend meetings that will review safety rules and protocols, including securing and maintaining control of carriage horses at all time, the union said.
The “refresher training” will then move to Central Park with horse-drawn carriages, but no passenger tours will take place until Tuesday, TWU said.
The union has said that the driver involved in the fatal incident should not have left his buggy seat. Kemp added that the labor group also wants to work with city officials to find spots in the park for drivers to hitch or tether their horses when needed.
Kemp said the union welcomed more oversight from the city Department of Health, too, by having officials conduct consistent check-ins and enforcement at the park.
“Carriage rides have been a Central Park experience since it opened in 1858, and the City issued the first carriage horse medallions in the late 1940s,” he said in a statement.
“This is believed to be the first passenger fatality in all that time, but we are committed to a Vision Zero approach where we do all that we can, collaborating with the City, to improve safety and prevent any accidents from occurring as we move forward.”
— Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts
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