Councilmember Marte sponsors Intro 943, cites 128 carriage accidents in 34 years

Good morning, everyone.

I'd like to give a huge thank you to Speaker Menon and Chair Shulman for holding today's historic hearing, and to the thousands of advocates and everyday New Yorkers who for years have been demanding we take action on horse carriages in Central Park.

For decades, we've seen horse carriages live in cramped stables.

We've seen them walk through midtown traffic, breathing in exhaust.

We've seen them pull thousands of pounds in the heat and in the cold.

We've seen them get scared, run off, and die in the streets.

Every time an incident occurs, we are given an excuse.

We are told it's just an isolated incident and the industry is completely safe.

But the reality is that in the past 34 years, there have been 128 documented horse carriage accidents.

Dirty horses have died.

Dozens of horses and people have been injured and hospitalized.

Vehicles have been damaged and destroyed.

And most recently, we lost the life of a young tourist, Ramash Mahajan.

As legislators, now is the time for serious accountability.

While the City Council

has dragged its feet through endless debates, we now have the loss of a boy on our hand.

These are not unrelated accidents, but a pattern of failure that proves this industry does not work in modern-day New York City.