Advocates calling for ban on horse-drawn carriages in NYC after runaway horses collide
CENTRAL PARK (WABC) -- Advocates are renewing their calls for a ban on horse-drawn carriages in New York City after another scary incident happened on Monday.
A collision between two of the carriages in Central Park sent the operators to the hospital.
A pair of horses, Hamilton and Shadow, ran loose in Central Park, galloping towards Abduol Gassambe, a pedicab driver.
"When it's coming at you, straight at you, right at you, you can not stand in front of it, you have to move, have to run. Had carriage with him, I've never seen this," Gassambe said.
It happened near East Drive on Monday afternoon.
A spokesperson for Local 100, which represents carriage horse drivers, says Shadow got out of his bridle.
There were no passengers in the back.
"The driver tried to grab it, to hold him up but the horse jumped again, so he couldn't hold it." Gassambe said.
Shadow initially ran toward the Plaza Hotel but a bus was in the way.
Gassambe said the horse made a U-turn and headed the wrong way into the park, hitting several pedicabs.
"It was crazy, a lot of people were screaming, they were scared for their lives," pedicab driver Daouda Tapsoda said.
The chase was on. A second driver ran to corral Shadow and then his horse, Hamilton, started following.
"That was too much for us, the way he was coming was powerful," Gassambe said.
It was yet another pedicab driver who finally stopped the horses.
"I tried my best not to hit the horse but to stop it," Mohammed said.
Shadow did kick Mohammed, but he wasn't seriously hurt.
He described how he brought the chaotic situation under control.
"I put my bike down by the carriage and blocked the carriage and kept him by my hand and kept using the breaks of the bike," Mohammed said.
Just recently, Mohammed stopped another runaway horse-drawn carriage in the park.
"Horses are nervous prey animals. When they run, they run out of control," said Edita Birnkrant, executive director of NYCLASS.
The union says this highlights the need for hitching posts here in the park, to tether idle horses.
One driver broke his wrist.
A rep says the horses are fine and being checked by a vet.
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