Family seeks $105 million from New York City after teen’s fatal Central Park carriage ride

The family of an 18-year-old tourist who died after a horse bolted during a carriage ride in Central Park is seeking $105 million from New York City , alleging that stray electrical voltage may have caused the animal to panic.

Romanch Mahajan, who was visiting New York from India with his family, spending the day snapping photos around Manhattan, suffered fatal head injuries during the June 17 incident near Cherry Hill in Central Park.

His family says the unsecured carriage horse, Sampson, suddenly took off while the driver stopped to take their picture.

"This was an avoidable accident," Sagar Chadha of Liakas Law, counsel for the Mahajan family, wrote in a statement.

"The allegations set forth in the Notice of Claim describe a preventable tragedy that followed years of warnings, prior incidents and failures to implement basic safeguards." "An 18-year-old young man came to New York City with his family and never made it back home," the statement continued.

"His family deserves answers, accountability and meaningful change so that no other family experiences what they have endured." MAN KILLED AFTER HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGE BOLTS AND FLIPS NEAR POPULAR NEW YORK CITY TOURIST DESTINATION The tragedy came just over two weeks after New York City horse-drawn carriages would have disappeared under an earlier proposed ban that failed last year.

That bill, introduced in 2024, would have prohibited horse-drawn cab operations beginning June 1, 2026, but it was defeated by the City Council’s Health Committee in November 2025.

"If the city had passed the law last year, our son would still be alive today," Deepak Mahajan said in a recorded video statement that played at a July 17 New York City Council hearing, as he and Romanch's mother wept.

"The only measure that can prevent another death is a full and complete act.

"Let his death not be in vain." The effort was revived this year just days before Mahajan’s death: Council Member Christopher Marte introduced a new version of the ban June 11 — six days before the June 17 accident — that would phase out horse-drawn cabs by June 1, 2028.

That bill is now being renamed "Romanch’s Law," and has the backing of New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin.

EAGLES FAN, 18, DIES AFTER FALL FROM LIGHT POLE DURING CELEBRATION "His death was heartbreaking, and it was preventable," Menin wrote in a statement to support and rename the bill.