Teenager in critical condition after horse-drawn carriage overturns in NYC's Central Park

Rocco Parascandola, Colin Mixson and Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News on Jun 17, 2026

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NEW YORK — An 18-year-old was in critical condition Wednesday after a horse-drawn carriage he was riding in overturned in Central Park.

The incident happened around 2:47 p.m. Wednesday near 71st Street and Center Drive.

A video making the rounds on social media shows a white carriage moving quickly. The carriage is seen from behind. Shortly into the video, it tips over as it appears to glance off a black horse-drawn carriage on the park drive.

It is unclear from the footage what caused the horse to run.

Police told the Daily News that an 18-year-old boy was in the carriage when it flipped. Two other passengers he was with had gotten out of the carriage along with the driver to take a photo, police sources said. The horse apparently spooked and ran before the 18-year-old could disembark.

The boy was taken to an area hospital in critical condition.

The incident comes amid a pitched battle for the future of the carriage horse industry in New York City, and a week after a horse died after ingesting a poisonous plant in the park.

“This is yet another serious and terrifying incident involving a carriage horse in Central Park, and it should make clear to everyone that delay is no longer defensible,” Council Member Christopher Marte, who is sponsoring legislation to ban horse carriages from the park, said in a statement.

“We are waiting for full details, but the pattern is deeply troubling. Horses have collapsed, bolted, crashed, died, injured workers, endangered passengers, and now sent another New Yorker to the hospital. No minor reform will make an 1,800-pound frightened animal safe in a crowded public park.”

The Central Park Conservancy — the nonprofit that manages the park — reiterated its own call to ban the horses Wednesday in the aftermath of the incident.

“That this frightening situation is just days after the previous one underscores the dangers posed by horse carriages to Park visitors, carriage drivers, and the horses themselves,” a conservancy spokesperson said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Transport Workers Union, which represents the roughly 200 carriage horse owners and drivers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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