A family vacation to New York City ended in the worst way possible on Wednesday afternoon. An 18-year-old tourist was killed in Central Park when a carriage horse named Sampson bolted, raced down a busy path, slammed into another carriage, and flipped over with people still inside. The crash happened around 2:45 p.m. on June 17, 2026, near Tavern on the Green, one of the most crowded corners of the entire park.
The teen and his family had just gotten back into the carriage for a ride. Within seconds, a relaxing afternoon turned into chaos that bystanders caught on video. Here is what actually happened, who the victim was, and why this single crash has reignited a fight over an industry that has run in the park for more than 150 years.
The driver had stepped away to take a photo
This is the part that stings the most. According to the carriage drivers’ union, the driver was not even in the carriage when the horse took off. He had climbed down and stepped back to snap a picture of his passengers, the kind of vacation photo families ask for all the time.
Alexander Kemp, an administrative vice president for Transport Workers Union Local 100, said the driver was “at least at arm’s length from his horse to take a photo of his passengers in the carriage” when the animal bolted for unknown reasons. Kemp did not sugarcoat it. “A driver is not supposed to leave the carriage to take photos, ever,” he said in a statement, adding that the union supports a full investigation. The driver later returned to the scene and was described as very, very shaken up.
The victim was a teenager visiting from India
The young man who died has been identified as Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old who was visiting New York City with his family from India. He was riding in the carriage with three other passengers when the horse took off.
When the carriage tipped over onto its side, Mahajan was thrown out and onto the pavement. He was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical condition. Hours later, police confirmed he had died of his injuries. The other three family members in the carriage refused medical treatment at the scene and had only minor injuries. One person who was part of the group appeared to be a small child.
Sampson had only been in the park for six weeks
One detail keeps coming up, and it matters. The horse, Sampson, had been working in Central Park for just six weeks. He was brand new to the noise, the crowds, the e-bikes, the food carts, and the constant flow of millions of people who pack the park every year.
Nobody has said exactly what set Sampson off. He simply took off and ran. The union has called for actual rules around how new horses get introduced into the business, which tells you a lot about how loose that process has been. Sampson, for what it is worth, was reported to be physically OK after the crash. The carriage owner has since announced that he will be retired from service, and the driver involved has been suspended indefinitely.
Bystanders caught the whole thing on video
Cellphone footage from the scene shows just how fast everything fell apart. One video shows the horse sprinting through the park, hitting a curb, and sending the carriage bouncing into the air. At least one person can be seen chasing after it on foot. Two passengers appear to jump from the four-wheeled cab to get out before it went over.
A second clip shows the carriage clipping the wheels of another carriage on the park’s busy loop and toppling onto its side. Footage of the aftermath shows the cab lying on its side, with the front wheels and the horse harness ripped clean off the front. It is the kind of thing that makes your blood run cold when you realize there were people, including a child, inside.
Another carriage horse died in the park eight days earlier
Here is what makes this crash feel less like a one-off and more like a warning sign that got ignored. Just eight days before Mahajan died, another carriage horse collapsed and died in the same general area of the park.
That horse was named Deniz, and he was 16 years old. On June 9, Deniz was pulling a carriage with two passengers and a driver near 72nd Street and Central Park West when he went down around 7:30 p.m. and died. His death was later linked to eating a plant that did not agree with him. The driver insisted Deniz had been in good health and had seen a vet back in January. One witness who saw it happen said it was the second carriage horse incident she had personally seen in 10 months.
This was the eighth incident in 13 months
Two horses making headlines in nine days would be bad enough. But the numbers around Central Park carriages have been piling up for over a year now.
According to the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that runs the park, Wednesday’s crash was the eighth horse-related incident in and around Central Park in just the past 13 months. One of those came back in January, when a horse dashed into traffic and crashed into cars. The Conservancy called Mahajan’s death “the tragedy we feared” and said that a young man came to enjoy the park and lost his life, which it called an unacceptable cost of an antiquated industry running in the middle of one of the busiest public spaces in America.
Ryder’s Law could shut the whole industry down
If you have followed New York politics, you have probably heard the name Ryder. The bill at the center of all this is called Ryder’s Law, named after a carriage horse that collapsed on a Manhattan street in 2022 and died several months later. The law would ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City entirely.
It would not just kick the horses out and leave drivers with nothing, either. The bill includes transitional job placement services for the people who currently work in the trade. Animal rights groups like PETA and NYCLASS have been pushing hard for it, and they wasted no time after the crash. PETA’s Ashley Byrne called on City Council members to pass it immediately.
City leaders say a hearing is coming in July
City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Council Member Lynn Schulman put out a joint statement calling the teen’s death horrific and heartbreaking, with their thoughts going to the victim’s loved ones. They also noted the Council recently introduced Ryder’s Law and plans to hold a hearing on the bill in July.
Mayor Eric Adams has already signaled where he stands. Back on September 17, 2025, he issued Executive Order 56 backing a phaseout of horse-drawn carriages, pointing to the more than 42 million people who visit Central Park every year as proof that the park has gotten too crowded for the trade to keep running safely.
The drivers’ union wants reforms, not a ban
Not everyone wants the carriages gone. The Transport Workers Union, which represents the drivers, says it is devastated by the death but argues the answer is better rules, not an outright ban. The union is calling for enhanced driver training, tougher exams with a hands-on test of actual skill, and real rules for bringing new horses into the business.
The union also made a point that is hard to argue with. Kemp said safety in the park is a growing concern across the board, and that improvements are needed for everything moving through it, including e-bikes, delivery vehicles, and pedicabs, not just horse-drawn carriages. The group even called for installing hitching posts throughout the park, which would have given that driver somewhere to tie Sampson before stepping away.
Where things stand now
The NYPD says its investigation into the crash remains ongoing. The driver is suspended. Sampson is being retired. And the family that came to see one of the most famous parks in the world is now grieving a teenager who should have been heading home with vacation photos instead.
Whether this is the moment that finally ends the carriage trade, or just another sad headline that fades by fall, will come down to what the City Council does at that July hearing. For now, the corner near Tavern on the Green where Romanch Mahajan lost his life stands as a reminder that the debate over these carriages stopped being theoretical a long time ago.