Stray voltage discovered in NYC’s Central Park, but did it cause the deadly horse carriage crash?

An electrical issue in Central Park has caused authorities to cut power to an area including the fountain at Cherry Hill and a café overlooking Sheep Meadow. While the extent of the problem is not yet clear,  the union representing the park’s carriage horse drivers is suggesting electrical problems could be behind what made a horse bolt last month — killing an 18-year-old tourist.

“Stray voltage from underground electrical cables has been discovered in the Cherry Hill section of Central Park,” the Transport Workers Union, which represents some 150 carriage horse workers, said Wednesday in a statement.

“The discovery raises serious questions about whether the horse was shocked and whether stray voltage triggered the tragic incident.”

“Stray voltage” is engineering-speak for the naturally occurring, low-voltage charge between two grounded electrical systems. The term is also commonly used as a catch-all for any electricity found where it shouldn’t be. A ConEd spokesman confirmed to the Daily News that the utility has detected “stray voltage” in that area of the park in recent weeks, and described the amount of electrical voltage detected as “minimal.”

The horse in question, Samson, bolted from a stand-still at Cherry Hill last month, on June 17, after his passengers had climbed into the carriage after having a photo taken but before his driver was aboard. As the horse fled, Priya Mahajan, a tourist visiting from India, was thrown from the carriage. Priya’s son, Romanch Mahajan, jumped after her, hitting his head as he tried to help his mother. He died from his injuries in his mother’s arms a short time later.

Mahajan’s death has become a rallying cry to revive years-long efforts to ban carriage horses from the park.

TWU’s suggestion comes at what may be the 11th hour for the horse carriage industry. A majority — 28 of the City Council’s 51 members — have signed on as co-sponsors to a bill that would end the industry in New York City by 2028, with a vote expected next month.

In a statement Wednesday, TWU Local 100 Administrative Vice President Alexander Kemp called that possibility “a rush to judgment” given the chance the horse was affected by the stray voltage in the park.

“Now that we know there is a utility failure, it would be horrifically unfair to eliminate the jobs of 200 overwhelmingly immigrant workers without allowing a full investigation to be conducted,” he said.

The industry has previously  suggested that Samson was shocked into running — the notion was first floated during a day-long hearing on the bill on June 15. “The horse at the fountain that ran away, he ran away so viciously,” Cornelius Byrne, who owns one of the industry’s stables, testified before City Council. “He acted as if he was electrocuted.”

No direct evidence has been put forth linking Samson’s fatal flee to an electrical jolt.

But a visit to the park Wednesday did confirm an issue with stray underground voltage has been going on for at least two weeks at the same location where the horse bolted a month ago — the Cherry Hill fountain near 72nd Street on the West side of the park.

At the fountain, where a makeshift monument to Romanch stands, the fountain pumps sat silent. A nearby electrical vault and a lamppost were both surrounded by yellow caution tape. Signs on each read, “Warning — possible electrical condition — do not enter,” alongside the logo for power utility ConEd.

Asked when power to the area would come back on, a man in a car marked “ConEd site monitor” told the Daily News crews were hard at work, but he didn’t know. He said power had been turned off due to safety concerns over damaged underground wiring — a situation exacerbated by recent rainfall.

Similar yellow-tape warnings surrounded lamp posts and utility vaults along the eastern side of West Drive from 72nd Street to 65th Street — where a NYC Department of Transportation work crew was working on the wires of a lamp post. A hand-written note in the window of a Le Pain Quotidien south of the fountain said the café was “temporarily closed” due to a “power outage beyond our control.”

NYC DOT did not immediately respond when asked about the circumstances surrounding the power outage or the repair work, nor was was it immediately clear Wedesday how far back the electrical issue at the park goes.

A TWU spokesman said Byrne, the stable owner, reached out to ConEd on July 16, the day after the hearing, to ask them to check for stray voltage.

Alan Drury, a spokesman for ConEd, said the utility first became aware of an issue on July 16, when a member of the public called to report exposed wiring nearby. He said a subsequent check of the area found “stray voltage.” Unwanted electrical voltage was again detected in the area on July 23, he said.

Drury said the utility has since ruled out its own infrastructure as the source of the problem, and referred further questions the the NYC Parks Department.

Parks deferred to the Central Park Conservancy.

A spokesperson for the Conservancy said the park’s electrical power is not within the non-profit’s purview, and directed The News back to ConEd and the city’s Transportation Department.

“Addressing electrical conditions in Central Park is not within the Conservancy’s jurisdiction,” a Conservancy spokesperson said. “We will support the efforts of our partners at ConEd, the Department of Transportation and other city agencies as they investigate and address this issue. If an electrical issue exists in the Park, it should be identified and corrected.”