Father Pleads for Ban After Teen Dies in NYC Horse Carriage Accident

Father of Indian teen killed in New York horse carriage accident pleads for ban on vehicle

New York, July 16

"Now we are asking you plainly, 'Act now'," Mahajan told the City Council on Wednesday (local time) as a panel considered the proposed law to be named for his son, Romanch, who was killed last month in Central Park.

Choking back tears, he said that if the Council had passed a version of this law proposed last year, "the carriages would have stopped on June 1st, 2026," and his son would have been alive.

While Romanch was visiting New York with his parents and younger brother, the family took a ride through the park on a horse carriage, which is a tourist attraction.

When the driver stopped and got off to take a picture of them, the horse bolted, throwing the mother, Priya Mahajan, off the carriage.

Romanch jumped out of the carriage to save his mother, but hit his head on the ground and suffered a head injury that took his life.

"This was not an unpredictable accident", the father said. "It was a safety violation, a system's failure to protect the people who visit our city, your city, and everyone responsible has admitted the driver should never have left that carriage."

"A young boy came to America full of dreams and left us far too soon," he said while Romanch's mother, Priya, wiped her tears as she held up a picture of him with the wings of an angel.

Council Speaker Julie Menin, who supports the bill, called him a hero.

"Romanch died in an act of heroism as he tried to protect his mother. Now, a law named in his honour will protect countless others: residents, tourists, humans, and horses," she said at the hearing on the proposed law held by the Council's Committee on Health, which has jurisdiction over the matter.

Addressing supporters of the law outside the City Hall, Romanch's aunt Sovia Thukral said, "I am standing here in support of Romanch's law, so that his death will not go unremembered, his passing will not be forgotten."

"Death forces society to change, so that no other family has ever to carry that we carry now," she said. "Please remember his name, Romanch Mahajan."

Urged by animal rights activists, the City Council has tried unsuccessfully for about 40 years to ban horse carriages that give rides with a touch of nostalgia to tourists.

Among celebrities supporting the ban is Emmy Award-winning actress Edie Falco.

The measure has faced stiff opposition from the powerful trade union to which the drivers belong, but this year Romanch's death has given the law an impetus, increasing the chances of its passage.

Romanch had just graduated from the Angel's Public School in Mamun, Pathankot, and had been admitted to one of India's most prestigious universities, Deepak Mahajan told the Council panel hearing.

"We brought a son to New York from India to celebrate Romanch finishing school," he said.

"He took his last breath in his mother's arms, while his 11-year-old brother and I stood watching," and "now we live inside that day over and over again. We are shattered. Our whole family is shattered. The pain does not go away," he said.

"We came to New York as a family of four," he said. "We are learning hour by hour to cope up with life as we are three now."

— IANS