Video of runaway carriage horse barreling through Midtown traffic reignites debate over industry’s future

A Central Park carriage horse bolted into oncoming traffic in Midtown Manhattan last week, colliding with several vehicles, according to the NYPD and video of the runaway equine.

The incident — captured in a social media video shared by the anti-horse carriage group New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets (NYCLASS) — saw what appears to be a spooked driverless horse pulling an empty carriage out of Central Park. It then barreled into traffic accross the four-way intersection of West 59th Street and Sixth Avenue, and down a block of Sixth Avenue.

Cops said they responded to calls of the carriage horse striking four to five unattended vehicles, though the video shows the horse hitting a yellow taxi pulling out of a spot, in the area at 11:23 a.m. on Jan. 8. There were no reported injuries, and the NYPD is still investigating, they said.

According to NYCASS, pedestrians had to jump and run out of the way to avoid getting trampled by the renegade horse.

Pete Donohue a spokesperson for Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents the roughly 200 carriage horse drivers, said the carriage driver claimed to be standing near the horse when the incident occured. He said the union believes the horse was startled by an Amazon delivery e-bike with a cargo trailer.

TWU Administrative Vice President Alexander Kemp, in a statement, said the incident fell “far short of our standards.”

“The union notified the Health Department, which is the lead regulatory agency in terms of city oversight, when this incident happened on Thursday,” Kemp said. “The union is now evaluating what internal actions will be taken regarding this individual driver.”

A carriage horse in Central Park.File Photo by Gabriele Holtermann

NYCLASS executive director Edita Birnkrant, in a statement, said the incident is one of many that have resulted from continuing to operate horse-drawn carriages in one of the city’s busiest areas. She added that horses are “unpredictable and nervous prey animals — hardwired to bolt when frightened” and that having them drag passengers around crowded Midtown streets amounts to “reckless endangerment.”

“These violent incidents keep happening because forcing horses attached to carriages into chaotic city streets is fundamentally incompatible with their nature,” Birnkrant said. “It is not going to change. People have already been injured, including carriage passengers, carriage drivers, and pedestrians and many have had to run for their lives to avoid being trampled.”

Push for banning carriage horses for good

Birnkrant pointed to “numerous” past carriage horse crashes over the years, which have left passengers, drivers, and the horses themselves, as well as pedestrians and cyclists, injured. Some carriage horses have even collapsed and died, including a horse named Ryder in 2022 and another named Lady last summer.

The NYCLASS executive director said the latest incident is yet another example of why the city should finally ban horse carriages by passing City Council legislation known as “Ryder’s Law” — reigniting a years-long debate over the industry between NYCLASS and the Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents roughly 200 carriage horse drivers.

The bill, which was sponsored by former Queens Council Member Robert Holden, did not make it out of the Council’s Health Committee last year when Holden forced a vote on it before his term ended on Dec. 31. Four members of the committee voted against the measure, denying Holden’s accusations of animal cruelty and airing concerns that it would ruin the livelihoods of carriage drivers, many of whom are immigrants.

Birnkrant said she hopes the legislation will be revived in the City Council’s new session and that Council Speaker Julie Menin will see it passed. She also noted that Mayor Zohran Mamdani already signaled support for the measure on the campaign trail, although TWU President John Samuelson endorsed Mamdani’s campaign and also claimed the mayor’s support on his side of the issue last year.

“We should not have to wait until more people are seriously injured or killed before our elected officials act,” Birnkrant said. “This is long-overdue legislation that protects both public safety and horse welfare — and it’s what the majority of New Yorkers want.”

Kemp responded by noting that “Special interest groups have been trying to ban carriage horses for nearly two decades.”

“It’s time to turn the page and come together to improve even further the good care the horses currently receive while also protecting carriage-driver jobs that enable an overwhelmingly immigrant workforce to put food on the table and take care of their families,” he added.

Spokespeople for Menin and Mamdani did not immediately respond to requests for comment.