The family of the 18-year-old Indian tourist who was killed last month in a Central Park carriage horse crash announced plans on Monday to sue the city over his death.
Romanch Mahajan, 18, was visiting New York City from India with family and was thrown from the carriage after the horse pulling it through Central Park bolted. The June incident marked the first death of a carriage passenger in at least five decades and has fueled longstanding calls to ban the industry.
Ali Najmi, the attorney representing the family, said the death was preventable and the city failed to make the park safe for horses or provide basic equine-oriented infrastructure like hitching posts.
Najmi, who has also served as a campaign attorney for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, did not specify when he planned to file the lawsuit.
Mahajan’s family members gathered at the park’s Cherry Hill Fountain, where his carriage driver lost control of the horse.
Mahajan’s father, Deepak, addressed the memorial via phone from India and said his son was a vegetarian and animal lover who has now "sacrificed his life for the animals.”
Sneha Choudhary, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, did not address the lawsuit directly in a statement following the family’s announcement.
“Our heart goes out to the Mahajan family, and we are deeply troubled by the heartbreaking tragedy they have experienced,” Choudhary wrote.
Edita Birnkrant, executive director of the animal rights group NYCLASS, said carriage drivers are still flouting the rules.
“It takes a split second for a horse to spook and bolt and kill someone, as we learned last month,” she said.
Christina Hansen, a carriage driver and shop steward for the Transport Workers Union, said she agreed with the family’s claim that the city is at fault for a lack of safety infrastructure.
Hansen pushed back against legislation before the City Council effort that would ban carriage horses from the park. A majority of councilmembers have backed the measure.
“The silent majority of people, we see it all the time out here, people come up to us and say, 'I hope they don't ban you. It's not fair,” she said. “The fact of the matter is that the amount of ignorance about our business and how our business works is astounding.”
