Central Park Horse Carriage

07/30/2026

NEWSTRANSPORTATION
Stray voltage discovered in NYC’s Central Park, but did it cause the deadly horse carriage crash?
Caution tape surrounds an electrical vault at Cherry Hill in Central Park. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News)
Caution tape surrounds an electrical vault at Cherry Hill in Central Park. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News)

By EVAN SIMKO-BEDNARSKI | [email protected] | New York Daily News
PUBLISHED: July 29, 2026 at 6:35 PM EDT | UPDATED: July 29, 2026 at 8:58 PM EDT
An electrical issue in Central Park has caused authorities to cut power to an area including the fountain at Cherry Hill and a café overlooking Sheep Meadow. While the extent of the problem is not yet clear, the union representing the park’s carriage horse drivers is suggesting electrical problems could be behind what made a horse bolt last month — killing an 18-year-old tourist.

“Stray voltage from underground electrical cables has been discovered in the Cherry Hill section of Central Park,” the Transport Workers Union, which represents some 150 carriage horse workers, said Wednesday in a statement.

“The discovery raises serious questions about whether the horse was shocked and whether stray voltage triggered the tragic incident.”

A ConEd site-safety monitor sits in a car beside a lamp post guarded with yellow tape at Cherry Hill. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News)
A ConEd site-safety monitor sits in a car beside a lamp post guarded with yellow tape at Cherry Hill. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News)
“Stray voltage” is engineering-speak for the naturally occurring, low-voltage charge between two grounded electrical systems. The term is also commonly used as a catch-all for any electricity found where it shouldn’t be. A ConEd spokesman confirmed to the Daily News that the utility has detected “stray voltage” in that area of the park in recent weeks, and described the amount of electrical voltage detected as “minimal.”

The horse in question, Samson, bolted from a stand-still at Cherry Hill last month, on June 17, after his passengers had climbed into the carriage after having a photo taken but before his driver was aboard. As the horse fled, Priya Mahajan, a tourist visiting from India, was thrown from the carriage. Priya’s son, Romanch Mahajan, jumped after her, hitting his head as he tried to help his mother. He died from his injuries in his mother’s arms a short time later.

NYCLASS Executive Director Edita Birnkrant speaks during a press conference Monday, July 27, 2026, where family members of Romanch Mahajan's family and animal rights activists called for the passage of Ryder's Law, also called Romanch's Law, in Central Park in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
NYCLASS Executive Director Edita Birnkrant speaks during a press conference Monday, July 27, 2026, where family members of Romanch Mahajan’s family and animal rights activists called for the passage of Ryder’s Law, also called Romanch’s Law, in Central Park in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Mahajan’s death has become a rallying cry to revive years-long efforts to ban carriage horses from the park.

TWU’s suggestion comes at what may be the 11th hour for the horse carriage industry. A majority — 28 of the City Council’s 51 members — have signed on as co-sponsors to a bill that would end the industry in New York City by 2028, with a vote expected next month.

In a statement Wednesday, TWU Local 100 Administrative Vice President Alexander Kemp called that possibility “a rush to judgment” given the chance the horse was affected by the stray voltage in the park.

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The aftermath of an out-of-control horse-drawn carriage is pictured in Central Park on Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Obtained by Daily News)
The aftermath of an out-of-control horse-drawn carriage is pictured in Central Park on Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Obtained by Daily News)
“Now that we know there is a utility failure, it would be horrifically unfair to eliminate the jobs of 200 overwhelmingly immigrant workers without allowing a full investigation to be conducted,” he said.

The industry has previously suggested that Samson was shocked into running — the notion was first floated during a day-long hearing on the bill on June 15. “The horse at the fountain that ran away, he ran away so viciously,” Cornelius Byrne, who owns one of the industry’s stables, testified before City Council. “He acted as if he was electrocuted.”

A horse-drawn carriage drives through the mud around the Cherry Hill fountain, where 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan was killed by a bolting horse last month. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News)
A horse-drawn carriage drives through the mud around the Cherry Hill fountain, where 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan was killed by a bolting horse last month. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News)
No direct evidence has been put forth linking Samson’s fatal flee to an electrical jolt.

But a visit to the park Wednesday did confirm an issue with stray underground voltage has been going on for at least two weeks at the same location where the horse bolted a month ago — the Cherry Hill fountain near 72nd Street on the West side of the park.

At the fountain, where a makeshift monument to Romanch stands, the fountain pumps sat silent. A nearby electrical vault and a lamppost were both surrounded by yellow caution tape. Signs on each read, “Warning — possible electrical condition — do not enter,” alongside the logo for power utility ConEd.

A makeshift memorial to 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan sits at the southern edge of Cherry Hill fountain. Mahajan was killed while trying to help his mother, who was thrown from the carriage of a bolting horse last month. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News)
A makeshift memorial to 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan sits at the southern edge of Cherry Hill fountain. Mahajan was killed while trying to help his mother, who was thrown from the carriage of a bolting horse last month. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News)
Asked when power to the area would come back on, a man in a car marked “ConEd site monitor” told the Daily News crews were hard at work, but he didn’t know. He said power had been turned off due to safety concerns over damaged underground wiring — a situation exacerbated by recent rainfall.

Similar yellow-tape warnings surrounded lamp posts and utility vaults along the eastern side of West Drive from 72nd Street to 65th Street — where a NYC Department of Transportation work crew was working on the wires of a lamp post. A hand-written note in the window of a Le Pain Quotidien south of the fountain said the café was “temporarily closed” due to a “power outage beyond our control.”

Caution tape and a warning sign around an electrical vault on West Drive in Central Park. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News)
Caution tape and a warning sign around an electrical vault on West Drive in Central Park. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News)
NYC DOT did not immediately respond when asked about the circumstances surrounding the power outage or the repair work, nor was was it immediately clear Wedesday how far back the electrical issue at the park goes.

A TWU spokesman said Byrne, the stable owner, reached out to ConEd on July 16, the day after the hearing, to ask them to check for stray voltage.

Alan Drury, a spokesman for ConEd, said the utility first became aware of an issue on July 16, when a member of the public called to report exposed wiring nearby. He said a subsequent check of the area found “stray voltage.” Unwanted electrical voltage was again detected in the area on July 23, he said.

A carriage horse passes Bethesda Fountain in Central Park on Wednesday, July 29th. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News)
A carriage horse passes Bethesda Fountain in Central Park on Wednesday, July 29th. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News)
Drury said the utility has since ruled out its own infrastructure as the source of the problem, and referred further questions the the NYC Parks Department.

Parks deferred to the Central Park Conservancy.

A spokesperson for the Conservancy said the park’s electrical power is not within the non-profit’s purview, and directed The News back to ConEd and the city’s Transportation Department.

“Addressing electrical conditions in Central Park is not within the Conservancy’s jurisdiction,” a Conservancy spokesperson said. “We will support the efforts of our partners at ConEd, the Department of Transportation and other city agencies as they investigate and address this issue. If an electrical issue exists in the Park, it should be identified and corrected.”

07/30/2026

7/29/2026 NYDN: "An electrical issue in Central Park has caused authorities to cut power to an area including the fountain at Cherry Hill and a café overlooking Sheep Meadow. While the extent of the problem is not yet clear, the union representing the park’s carriage horse drivers is suggesting electrical problems could be behind what made a horse bolt last month — killing an 18-year-old tourist.

“Stray voltage from underground electrical cables has been discovered in the Cherry Hill section of Central Park,” the Transport Workers Union, which represents some 150 carriage horse workers, said Wednesday in a statement.

“The discovery raises serious questions about whether the horse was shocked and whether stray voltage triggered the tragic incident.”

“Stray voltage” is engineering-speak for the naturally occurring, low-voltage charge between two grounded electrical systems. The term is also commonly used as a catch-all for any electricity found where it shouldn’t be. A ConEd spokesman confirmed to the Daily News that the utility has detected “stray voltage” in that area of the park in recent weeks, and described the amount of electrical voltage detected as “minimal.”

The horse in question, Samson, bolted from a stand-still at Cherry Hill last month, on June 17, after his passengers had climbed into the carriage after having a photo taken but before his driver was aboard. As the horse fled, he threw Priya Mahajan, a tourist visiting from India, was thrown from the carriage. Priya’s son, Romanch Mahajan, jumped after her, hitting his head as he tried to help his mother. He died from his injuries in his mother’s arms a short time later.

Mahajan’s death has become a rallying cry to revive years-long efforts to ban carriage horses from the park.

TWU’s suggestion comes at what may be the 11th hour for the horse carriage industry. A majority — 28 of the City Council’s 51 members — have signed on as co-sponsors to a bill that would end the industry in New York City by 2028, with a vote expected next month.

In a statement Wednesday, TWU Local 100 Administrative Vice President Alexander Kemp called that possibility “a rush to judgment” given the chance the horse was affected by the stray voltage in the park.

“Now that we know there is a utility failure, it would be horrifically unfair to eliminate the jobs of 200 overwhelmingly immigrant workers without allowing a full investigation to be conducted,” he said.

The industry has previously suggested that Samson was shocked into running — the notion was first floated during a day-long hearing on the bill on June 15. “The horse at the fountain that ran away, he ran away so viciously,” Cornelius Byrne, who owns one of the industry’s stables, testified before City Council. “He acted as if he was electrocuted.”

No direct evidence has been put forth linking Samson’s fatal flee to an electrical jolt.

But a visit to the park Wednesday did confirm an issue with stray underground voltage has been going on for at least two weeks at the same location where the horse bolted a month ago — the Cherry Hill fountain near 72nd Street on the West side of the park.

At the fountain, where a makeshift monument to Romanch stands, the fountain pumps sat silent. A nearby electrical vault and a lamppost were both surrounded by yellow caution tape. Signs on each read, “Warning — possible electrical condition — do not enter,” alongside the logo for power utility ConEd.

Asked when power to the area would come back on, a man in a car marked “ConEd site monitor” told the Daily News crews were hard at work, but he didn’t know. He said power had been turned off due to safety concerns over damaged underground wiring — a situation exacerbated by recent rainfall.

Similar yellow-tape warnings surrounded lamp posts and utility vaults along the eastern side of West Drive from 72nd Street to 65th Street — where a NYC Department of Transportation work crew was working on the wires of a lamp post. A hand-written note in the window of a Le Pain Quotidien south of the fountain said the café was “temporarily closed” due to a “power outage beyond our control.”

NYC DOT did not immediately respond when asked about the circumstances surrounding the power outage or the repair work, nor was was it immediately clear Wedesday how far back the electrical issue at the park goes.

A TWU spokesman said Byrne, the stable owner, reached out to ConEd on July 16, the day after the hearing, to ask them to check for stray voltage.

Alan Drury, a spokesman for ConEd, said the utility first became aware of an issue on July 16, when a member of the public called to report exposed wiring nearby. He said a subsequent check of the area found “stray voltage.” Unwanted electrical voltage was again detected in the area on July 23, he said.

Drury said the utility has since ruled out its own infrastructure as the source of the problem, and referred further questions the the NYC Parks Department.

Parks deferred to the Central Park Conservancy.

A spokesperson for the Conservancy said the park’s electrical power is not within the non-profit’s purview, and directed The News back to ConEd and the city’s Transportation Department.

“Addressing electrical conditions in Central Park is not within the Conservancy’s jurisdiction,” a Conservancy spokesperson said. “We will support the efforts of our partners at ConEd, the Department of Transportation and other city agencies as they investigate and address this issue. If an electrical issue exists in the Park, it should be identified and corrected.”"

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Article Link: https://www.nydailynews.com/2026/07/29/stray-voltage-discovered-nyc-central-park-did-it-cause-the-deadly-horse-carriage-crash-romanch-twu/?utm_campaign=mrf-facebook-NYDailyNews&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&mrfcid=202607296a6a896d8cfafb73d49702e5&fbclid=Iwb21leATXawxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR6Rp9Q9Pyfz2qDkPVXfTY2nVXBhsFytTPC8D_SWTo5H4iFfEzb4KUizXmPzVQ_aem_gF-ql8mEmIM2HQiIXurI0Q

07/30/2026

NYDN 7/25/2026: "From his perch in the driver’s seat of a horse-drawn carriage eight feet above Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, Ahmet Bilici insists he sees all manner of bicycle offenses in Central Park and wonders what all the fuss surrounding his industry is about.

He says he’s seen reckless e-bike riders, dangerous delivery people, and lost count long ago of how many collisions he has witnessed between tourists and two-wheelers.
“They do racing in the park every single day,” Bilici said of the bicycles. “The pedestrians couldn’t even walk across the street. The park is crazy because of the bicycles.”

Yet, Bilici says, it’s him and Chocolate, and drivers and horses like them, with targets on their backs as critics push hard to put their industry and livelihoods out to pasture.

Long before an 18-year-old tourist was killed earlier this month in a runaway carriage horse incident, the carriage ride industry had been the subject of fierce debate.

On one side were animal rights activists who said carriage horses are overworked, get easily spooked on city streets, live in inadequate stables and are controlled by abusive owners and drivers.

On the other side are industry advocates, who say the animals are well cared for, the stables are fine and the owners and drivers love their horses like most pet owners love their dogs.

Missing from the debate, says Bilici, is the economic impact a total ban on horse-drawn carriages — like the one under consideration by Mayor Mamdani and the city council — would have on drivers like him and his family.

Bilici, who said he grew up with horses on a farm, said he immigrated 25 years ago to New York City from Turkey, where he went to school to become a veterinarian. But he said a language barrier kept him from finding work in his field.

So he did odd jobs — grocery store clerk, security guard — for a few years until he found something that really clicked.

The years since have been good to him, he said. He owns one of the 68 medallions sold by the city granting the right to operate a carriage. He even has two horses for his carriage, a second so his son can work an extra shift, where rides through Central Park cost about $72 for the first 20 minutes.

But the June 17 death of a tourist threatens to change all that. Romanch Mahajan, 18, was in a Central Park carriage when the driver stepped out of his seat to take a photo of him and his family, who had traveled from India to visit New York City for the first time.

While they were posing, the horse suddenly started running, and Mahajan was thrown off the carriage. He hit his head on the pavement, and later died. It was the first recorded human fatality in Gotham’s carriage-horse industry.

Mahajan family said they support a city council carriage ban bill, which has been renamed in the teen’s honor. They also participated in a nine-hour City Council Health Committee hearing over the ban bill, which would end all horse-drawn carriage rides by June 2028.

A vote on the bill is expected next month.

Following Mahajan’s death, the union representing the drivers and the city agreed to press pause on the rides, standing down for several days while safety rules and protocols were reevaluated.

“We are back in the park after spending the weekend doing refresher training and all the safety protocols in order to operate safely here in the park,” Christina Hansen, the shop steward for TWU Local 100, said last week.

Meanwhile, the owner of the carriage involved in the fatal crash suspended the driver indefinitely and plans to retire the horse, according to union officials, who said the driver improperly dismounted to take a photograph of his passengers.

Bilici said disciplining the driver was the proper move. He said he sympathizes with the victim’s family, but for those who want to abolish the industry over the incident, Bilici has an urgent plea: Hold your horses.

“One of the top tourist attractions are the horse carriages in Central Park,” Bilici said. “Why doesn’t the city try to make it more safe instead of trying to ban them?”

Bilici said hitching posts installed throughout the park would solve part of the problem.

“You have to have a place to tie up your horse,” Bilici said. “You need to tie this animal to some hitching post. They can do that. It’s very simple. There’s a lot of space in Central Park.”"

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Article Link: https://www.nydailynews.com/2026/07/25/central-park-carriage-horse-drivers-want-better-regulations-not-a-ban/?utm_campaign=mrf-facebook-NYDailyNews&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&mrfcid=202607256a64d10b64743358b455dbd1&fbclid=Iwb21leATRuTFwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHsfXH2MRrlM6EX6lDo2rTeP37BAWOUWdQYsokD6NuByDB98qkOVeCqmd-x9N_aem_9WF4RM3lbyrmMhWqkLrJfQ

07/30/2026

‼️If you don't have the time to reach out to all 51 of our NYC council members, you can scan this QR code or click the link below to send one quick e-mail to them all in support of the NYC horse carriage industry!

LINK: https://tinyurl.com/SupportNYCCarriageIndustry

If you DO have the time to make more impactful individual phone calls or send e-mails (where there is less of a risk of this message winding up in their spam box & going unnoticed) please continue to: https://www.facebook.com/SaveNYCHorses/posts/pfbid0p6wFhfEquQq9BcduJiJ1BR1Ui4jBYdFXQfp1MTDARbsg5XhWQ88jyU2pgturmQxPl

07/30/2026

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Take a ride through the heart of Midtown Manhattan during Christmas time on a horse drawn carriage. This ride was provided by NYC Adventures. The Christmas...