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The family of the teen tourist tragically killed when he was thrown from a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park is urging the City Council to “do the right thing” and ban the iconic rides ahead of a landmark hearing Wednesday.
Hundreds of people have signed up to testify at the hearing over a proposed bill — re-named “Romanch’s Law” following 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan’s June 16 death — that would phase out the 160-year-old industry for good.
“Our beautiful child was senselessly, needlessly taken away from us,” Mahajan’s uncle, Gorav Mahajan, said in a video message sent to City Council Speaker Julie Menin and obtained by The Post Monday night.
“His death was entirely preventable. In fact, it could’ve been worse – we could’ve lost our entire family in that horrific incident.”
The teen, his parents and his 11-year-old brother had gotten to the Big Apple from India for a dream vacation just three days before the fateful ride in the Manhattan green space, relatives have said.
The family was posing for a photo, which their horse-carriage driver was taking, when the horse, named Sampson, got spooked and suddenly took off — sending Mahajan’s mother, Priya, tumbling out first, before the teen fell, too, and was fatally injured.
“The remaining members of our family managed to survive, but the next family may not be as lucky,” Gorav Mahajan said in the video.
The family is now demanding “absolute accountability,” he added.
Formerly known as Ryder’s Law — after the carriage horse that collapsed, and later died, on city streets in 2022 — the bill under consideration was first pitched that year by then-Councilman Bob Holden, but it never made it to a vote
In November, the Council’s health panel refused to advance the bill out of committee despite support from then-Mayor Eric Adams and the Central Park Conservancy.
The measure was reintroduced for consideration again this year by Councilman Chris Marte, who was set to rally for it outside City Hall ahead of the Wednesday morning hearing — alongside Mahajan family members, actress Edie Falco and other animal advocates.
Several of the family members are expected to testify via Zoom from India and Canada, as well as in person.
The bill would set a two-year timeline to phase out Central Park’s dozens of active licensed horse-carriage drivers to new jobs, Marte said.
The Transport Workers Union, which reps the hansom cab drivers, blasted the proposed ban as a “recipe for economic disaster for immigrant workers and their families, with the strong potential of harm for the horses themselves,” in a statement over the weekend.
While any outright ban on the industry would have to be enacted through Council, former mayors, including Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams. have moved to curb the practice during their tenures.
Under an 11th-hour executive order from Adams before he left office, carriage horses would’ve been subject to regular veterinary inspections and tests for drugs and injuries.
That directive was scrapped by Mayor Zohran Mamdani when he took office in January, part of a mass reversal of Adams-era orders by the new administration.
But Mamdani has said he supports ending the horse-drawn carriage industry, repeating that belief during an unrelated press conference Tuesday, but saying any ban would need to be “in partnership with community leaders [and] labor partners.”
“We support the spirit of the bill,” he said. “We are, however, critical of the insufficiencies of the worker protections and we look forward to working with the council to address those concerns.”
Some 68% of New Yorkers support ending the decades-old practice, according to a survey conducted by the Central Park Conservancy this summer.
The highly-anticipated Council hearing comes after years of carriage horse deaths and collapses in Central Park. At least four of the horses have died, including Ryder, since 2020 activists say.
There have been seven industry incidents in the park over the last 13 months, according to the Conservancy — including in May when a spooked horse charged into another carriage, causing it to overturn and leaving a coachman injured.
Mahajan’s death came just a week after 16-year-old carriage horse Deniz died after eating a toxic plant in Central Park — and whose owner was flagged for alleged neglect after a city-hired veterinarian made a surprise inspection at nearby stables.
Adams’ former first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro, who led the admin’s charge against carriage horses, said it was a “mistake” for Mamdani to reverse his predecessor’s order.
“They at least should’ve been reviewed on a case-by-case basis,” he told The Post. “It would’ve been better to see them through, to see full vet exams, and licenses suspended” for bad actors.
Still, Mastro contended the city was “poised to see the end of the horse carriage industry, finally” with support from Menin and growing momentum among the governing body.
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