BP Hoylman-Sigal presents carriage incident data analysis

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Shulman, members of the committee, Council of Ramarte, sponsor of Ramantia's Law, and thank you, Speaker Julie-Menin, for your support of this legislation and holding this hearing and being here personally.

It means a lot.

I'm Brad Hoylman Siegel.

I have the honor of serving 1.6 million New Yorkers as Manhattan Borough President.

You know, Times Square was once lined with blacksmiths and stables and home to the Vanderbilt's American Horse Exchange.

In fact, my extended family once ran a small business called Miller's Harnesses.

Even though Miller's Harnesses is no longer in business, and there have been dramatic changes in the transport of goods and services and people in Manhattan, as we all know, the horse carriage industry continues to operate on the busiest pathways of Central Park,

the world's third most visited tourist attraction.

Today we're reckoning not only with an industry many say needs to be more tightly regulated, if not outlawed altogether, but the death of a young man, Ramach

Mahajan, who came to New York for what was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, and who fairly assumed, along with his family, that when they took a city-regulated tourist ride, it would be safe.

That was an avoidable tragedy, one no family should ever have to face.

The death of anyone, especially a young person, should be enough to demand change.

But for my mind,

My testimony today, my team and I wanted to take a step back and look at some sober statistics around the issue.

So we reviewed public records, including the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene data, for every documented report of carriage horse incidents in and around Central Park dating back to 1982.

What we found was evidence of 96 serious carriage horse incidents, including human injuries, and 40 horse deaths.

Between 1982 and 2026, the annual incident rate has more than quadrupled.

In just under half those cases, a horse died.

And when a horse escapes its carriage, our data show that a person is hurt over half the time.

The trend is only getting worse.

Over the last 13 months alone, we counted eight incidents, more than double the pace the industry has averaged since 2019.

We collaborated with a professor from the mathematics department at Columbia University on a forecast model

based on this data set.

If the pattern holds, our forecast shows we could see 16 to 30 more carriage incidents by 2030,

almost certainly with human injuries, and upwards of 11 more horse deaths.

New Yorkers are concerned about this trend line too.

We've seen the recent

Polling data by Zenith Research that shows 68% of respondents supported ending horse-drawn carriages in New York City.

In concert with this finding, 311...

One data shows 175 horse-related animal abuse complaints since 2020, two-thirds of them from inside two streets of the park in the industry's own stables.

It's clear the status quo is unacceptable.

That's why I joined my colleagues in co-sponsoring Romance's Law.

But any serious case for winding this industry down has to reckon with the hundreds of workers who will be at risk of losing their livelihood.

I want to be clear that the drivers doing this job every day are not to blame for these tragedies.

And the city has an obligation to collaborate with them on finding a professional landing.

Intro 943 directs DCWP to build a workforce transition program.

I urge this committee and DCWP to make sure it is funded and staffed before drivers lose their routes.

Intro 943 also prohibits selling or transferring any horses for slaughter or into other city carriage businesses.

Last September, two dozen equine rescues and sanctuaries offered to place every horse this industry retires.

I hope this council, and I know this council, will work with that coalition to ensure a smooth and safe transition.

The full horse incident record, a review of our 311 data, and our analysis is available online in our report, Should New York City Ban Horse Carriages?

Here's what 44 years'worth of data shows.

In honor of Ramach and in tribute to his loving family, who I understand are

with us today, I urge the council to pass Romancia's law.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Ms.

Sullivan?

If you can keep it brief, we would appreciate that.