NEW YORK (AP) — An 18-year-old is dead after a horse pulling a carriage in New York City’s Central Park broke free from its driver and sent passengers tumbling to the ground on Wednesday, according to police.
The young man was one of four passengers riding in the horse-drawn carriage when the incident occurred just before 3 in the afternoon, according to the New York Police Department. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, while the three other passengers declined medical attention.
A representative from the Transport Workers Union, which represents workers in the carriage industry, revealed that the horse involved had only been working in the park for six weeks. According to Alexander Kemp, the administrative vice president of the union’s local chapter, the driver had gotten off the carriage to snap a photo of the passengers when the horse bolted.
“A driver is not supposed to leave the carriage to take photos — ever,” Kemp stated. “We support a full investigation.”
Video footage captured the horse racing through the park while two people appeared to leap from the moving four-wheeled carriage. A second video shows the cab tipping over after its wheels made contact with another carriage on the park’s heavily trafficked loop road.
The tragedy comes at a particularly sensitive time for Central Park’s horse-drawn carriage industry, which has operated for roughly 150 years but now faces increasing pressure from critics who argue the rides are cruel to animals and pose a risk to the public.
Wednesday’s fatal incident follows a separate horse-related tragedy just last week, when a horse collapsed and died in the same park.
The Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit organization that manages the park and publicly backed a carriage ban last summer, is now calling for the industry to be shut down entirely in light of the two back-to-back incidents.
“That this frightening situation is just days after the previous one underscores the dangers posed by horse carriages to Park visitors, carriage drivers, and the horses themselves,” the group said in a written statement. “We hope today’s injuries are the last we ever see.”
