An 18-year-old Indian student tragically died in New York's Central Park after falling from a horse-drawn carriage, an incident that occurred during his family's first vacation to the city. The accident happened when the carriage driver paused to take a family portrait, reportedly leaving the horse unattended, causing it to bolt. The student, Romanch Mahajan, fell while attempting to assist his mother, who had fallen out of the carriage, and sustained a fatal head injury. This event has reignited calls to ban horse-drawn carriages in Central Park, with Mayor Zohran Mamdani expressing support for such a measure and vowing to work towards a transition that protects workers while ending the practice. Investigations into the incident are ongoing, and the carriage driver has been indefinitely suspended.

An 18-year-old Indian student tragically died in New York's Central Park after falling from a horse-drawn carriage, an incident that occurred during his family's first vacation to the city. The accident happened when the carriage driver paused to take a family portrait, reportedly leaving the horse unattended, causing it to bolt. The student, Romanch Mahajan, fell while attempting to assist his mother, who had fallen out of the carriage, and sustained a fatal head injury. This event has reignited calls to ban horse-drawn carriages in Central Park, with Mayor Zohran Mamdani expressing support for such a measure and vowing to work towards a transition that protects workers while ending the practice. Investigations into the incident are ongoing, and the carriage driver has been indefinitely suspended.

An 18-year-old Indian student tragically died in New York's Central Park after falling from a horse-drawn carriage, an incident that occurred during his family's first vacation to the city. The accident happened when the carriage driver paused to take a family portrait, reportedly leaving the horse unattended, causing it to bolt. The student, Romanch Mahajan, fell while attempting to assist his mother, who had fallen out of the carriage, and sustained a fatal head injury. This event has reignited calls to ban horse-drawn carriages in Central Park, with Mayor Zohran Mamdani expressing support for such a measure and vowing to work towards a transition that protects workers while ending the practice. Investigations into the incident are ongoing, and the carriage driver has been indefinitely suspended.

In a shocking incident, an 18-year-old Indian student died in New York’s Central Park in a freak accident involving a horse-drawn carriage. The incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon during the family’s first vacation to New York.

The Mahajan family was visiting the park when they decided to take a leisurely ride in an old-fashioned horse-drawn carriage, according to The New York Times.  The 18-year-old was with his parents and younger brother when the driver of the carriage stopped to take a portrait of the family. The horse, however, bolted off into the sidewalk.

“We were yelling, ‘Help me, help me! We clung desperately to one another,” Mahajan told the NYT, adding that his wife, Priya, fell out of the carriage. Romanch jumped down to try  to help her. “My son, just to save his mother,” he fell off. He was screaming, ‘Mom!,” Mahajan added.

Romanch hit his head on the ground in the fall. Though he was rushed to the
NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Centre, he succumbed to his injuries. The rest of the family escaped with minor injuries.

According to Alexander Kemp, a vice president of the Transport Workers Union that represents carriage drivers, the driver shouldn’t have moved away from the horse carriage. “It appears the driver was at least at arm’s length from his horse,” Alexander Kemp, a vice president of the union, Transport Workers Union Local 100, said in a statement. “This is unacceptable. A driver is not supposed to leave the carriage to take photos — ever. We support a full investigation.”

The horse involved in the accident is seven-year-old Sampson, and it was not injured in the accident. The animal will no longer be used at the park and has been working only for six weeks. “The driver, whose name was not immediately released, has been suspended indefinitely by the carriage’s owner,”  Kemp added.


Though this was reportedly the first human fatality involved in a horse carriage accident, there are calls to do away with carriage horses in the park. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said he supported banning horse-driven carriages.  “I look forward to working with City Council, union partners, carriage drivers, animal welfare advocates and community leaders to deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all,” the mayor said, while calling the incident horrific.

Videos posted on X show the carriage dashing around a corner and then, seconds later, hitting the other carriage and tipping over.

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