CENTRAL PARK, NY — A horse-drawn carriage driver was injured in Central Park on Monday after a startled horse toppled the carriage, renewing calls to ban the carriage rides altogether.
According to the NYPD, the two horse-drawn carriages were parked near West 59th Street and West Drive at 5:52 p.m. when a horse named Troy was startled by "an abrupt movement," prompting a horse named Otis to startle, knocking over the first carriage.
The first carriage’s driver, a 44-year-old man, was knocked off his seat and was taken to New York Presbyterian- Weill Cornell Medical Center to be treated for minor injuries, police said. Both horses were uninjured, police said.
According to the Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents the city’s carriage drivers, Troy became startled after his carriage wheel caught the back wheel of a parked carriage, setting off the chain reaction.
"This incident is a stark reminder of the dangers that horse-drawn carriages pose in an increasingly crowded Central Park — not only to the Park’s millions of visitors, but very often to the drivers themselves," a spokesperson from the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit operator of the park, said. "The Central Park Conservancy renews its call to ban carriages in Central Park as a matter of public safety and public health."
However, a spokesperson from Transport Workers Union Local 100 said halting the practice would put the coachmen out of work.
"Carriage-horse rides and the horses are a popular attraction, part of what makes the Central Park so special, and are an important source of jobs for an overwhelmingly immigrant group of New Yorkers," the spokesperson said. "The stables are on valuable property that real estate interests would love to see vacant so they can be snatched up to build expensive high-rises. This so-called debate has always at its core been about real estate, not animal welfare."
In August, a carriage horse named Lady collapsed and died in Hell's Kitchen, just weeks after a New York jury acquitted carriage horse driver Ian McKeever of animal abuse charges for Ryder, a 30-year-old carriage horse who collapsed while on the job and later had to be put down.
A City Council bill from 2024, named for Ryder, would ban the practice altogether, but it didn't pass.
"New York should join the growing number of major cities around the world that have already banned horse-drawn carriages before yet another accident is allowed to happen," the spokesperson from the Central Park Conservancy said.
For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.
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