New York City's horse carriage trade — a Central Park fixture for more than 150 years — stands hours away from a decisive reckoning. The City Council will vote this Thursday, October 22, on Romanch's Law, legislation that would permanently phase out the industry by June 1, 2028. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin have reached an agreement on the bill, which carries 29 sponsors in the 51-seat chamber — enough to clear the threshold for passage.
A Death That Broke a Decades-Long Stalemate
The bill's name and its unstoppable momentum trace directly to one June afternoon. On June 17, 2026, 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan, a visitor from India celebrating his high school graduation and acceptance into a university, boarded a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park with his parents and younger brother. The driver stepped off the vehicle to photograph the family near a fountain when the horse suddenly bolted. As the carriage raced through the park, Mahajan's mother was flung from her seat. Her son jumped out trying to reach her — and struck his head on the pavement before the carriage clipped a second vehicle and overturned. He died that evening at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
His death is believed to be the first passenger fatality tied to a horse carriage incident since the rides launched in Central Park more than 150 years ago, according to both the Transport Workers Union and the Central Park Conservancy. It was also the eighth horse-related incident recorded in the park over a 13-month span — a pattern that city leaders said they could no longer justify tolerating.
Nearly Two Decades of Failed Attempts
Animal welfare advocates had been pushing for this outcome since at least the 2013 mayoral campaign. NYCLASS — New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets — served as the principal force behind those efforts, pressing through two consecutive mayoral administrations without a legislative win. A predecessor bill was introduced in 2022 under the name Ryder's Law, honoring a 26-year-old carriage horse who had spent over seven hours working on a sweltering 84-degree August day before collapsing on a street in Hell's Kitchen. Ryder was euthanized two months later following a cancer diagnosis. The bill bearing his name was formally voted down 4-to-1 by a Council subcommittee in November 2025.
Further pressure built when a 16-year-old horse named Deniz collapsed and died in Central Park on June 9, 2026, just over a week before the fatal accident involving Mahajan, after consuming a toxic plant. The sequence proved to be the breaking point. The legislation was renamed Romanch's Law in honor of the teenager, and the political standoff that had blocked action for years finally gave way.
What Romanch's Law Would Actually Do
If approved Thursday, the bill would immediately halt the issuance of any new operating licenses for horse carriages in the city. The full prohibition would take effect on June 1, 2028, at which point the industry's roughly 160 horses, 68 carriages, and 208 licensed drivers would be retired from Central Park entirely. The legislation also explicitly bans the sale or transfer of horses to slaughterhouses or to any other carriage operation, with provisions requiring that animals be placed in accredited sanctuaries.
The Labor Dispute at the Heart of the Vote
The bill's thorniest debate centers not on the horses but on the workers. The legislation calls for a workforce transition program that would include job placement assistance, professional retraining, career counseling, and financial compensation for drivers — all represented by Transport Workers Union Local 100. City Hall spokesperson Sneha Choudhary said the administration had spent months coordinating with "union partners, carriage drivers, animal welfare advocates, and community leaders" to build a viable path forward for workers.
TWU International President John Samuelsen was unmoved, declaring the bill offers "no meaningful economic relief for workers." He argued that the legislation directs the city to develop a transition plan without locking in the specific financial commitments needed to actually protect drivers. Several workers echoed that frustration at a nine-hour City Council hearing in July, warning that job fairs and retraining sessions would not keep roofs over their families' heads.
A Coalition That Finally Has the Votes
On the other side, support is organized and growing. The Central Park Conservancy — which manages the 843-acre park and had been publicly calling for a ban after accumulating safety incidents — praised the push from Mamdani and Menin to bring the measure to a vote. NYCLASS executive director Edita Birnkrant called Mahajan's death evidence that the industry's risks had become indefensible. Mayor Mamdani made the legislation a centerpiece of his administration's early agenda and left little ambiguity about where he stands. In a social media post following the announcement of the vote, he wrote that the horse carriage industry is "coming to an end in New York City."
Should the Council vote as expected on Thursday, carriage horses will continue to operate in Central Park through the spring of 2028. After that, for the first time in more than 150 years, they won't.
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