Horse Carriage Crash Near Central Park Injures 3, Police Say

CENTRAL PARK, NY — Three women aboard a carriage outside Central Park were injured after the horse pulling them was spooked, took off and crashed into two parked cars, police said.

The incident, the second since January, occurred in front of the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Central Park South around 12:15 p.m. Sunday after the carriage driver briefly lost control of the horse, police said. The horse was startled when a pedestrian opened an umbrella in front of its face, a spokeswoman for the carriage industry said in a statement.

As the horse bolted, the driver jumped from the carriage to regain control of the horse, but it made a u-turn and got away from him, a carriage industry spokeswoman said. The horse stopped when the carriage got wedged between the two cars.

The carriage driver was not hurt and no pedestrians were harmed during the crash, police said. The injured women were taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital with minor injuries, police said.

The horse, named Arthur, was not injured but was transported back to its stable for a veterinary exam, a carriage industry spokeswoman said.

Animal rights activist group NYLCASS said the crash calls into question the safety of New York City's current horse carriage laws.

"It is now clearer than ever that the city's antiquated horse carriage rules endanger anyone who visits, lives, or works in New York City," NYCLASS Executive Director Edita Birnkrant said in a statement. "The enforcement of these carriages is a joke and it has only gotten more lax in the last four years, despite repeated assurances from City Hall. The time for talk is over. We need real leadership and we need it now."

The carriage industry maintains that horse carriages remain the safest mode of transportation in Midtown Manhattan in terms of collisions per mile traveled.

"Everyone in the carriage industry works everyday to ensure the safety of our horses, our passengers and the public, and our record speaks for itself," industry spokeswoman Christina Hansen said in a statement. "That every single accident we have is considered news is a testament to the safety of our industry. We wish those injured today a speedy recovery."

In January, a horse carriage overturned on Central Park South after turning onto the street from Columbus Circle. Eyewitnesses claimed that the carriage overturned while two drivers were racing for a better spot on the hack line to pick up passengers, but a carriage industry spokeswoman denied that the drivers were racing.

Photo courtesy NYCLASS