I seem to be walking right into breaking news lately.

This afternoon I was walking across Central Park South towards Columbus Circle. In front of Mickey Mantle’s, there was quite a scene.  Two horses went bizerk and caused a car accident.

By the time I got there, it had already happened, and they were removing one of the horses.  Here’s the story I heard from a guy who witnessed the whole thing.

There was a guy walking down the sidewalk banging on a drum.  He ended up spooking a stopped horse.  If you’ve ever walked along CPS, you know that is where the horses stop to rest and eat.  The hansoms usually “park” them on a 45 degree angle.  So the drum spooked the horse.  As a result, the horse reared up and bolted up on to the sidewalk.

However, it didn’t get far at all because it’s harness got stuck on a light-post.  So the horse stepped back and got its foot stuck in the carriage wheel, and broke it’s leg.

All that insanity spooked the horse in front of it.  The second horse just bolted straight across the street 90 degrees into traffic.  It ended up on the hood of a small Mercedes.  It really crunched it up pretty bad.  The light, bumper, and hood were all bent up.

Meanwhile, there was some guy sitting across the street eating in Mickey Mantle’s.  He just so happened to be some sort of horse expert.  He ran across the street and took the second horse off the hood of the car, unhooked it from its carriage, walked it over to a light pole, and tied it up.  He then worked on calming the horse down, which he did.  He then went to attend to the first, injured horse.

The first horse ended up being put down right there on the scene.  However, it took over 40 minutes for emergency officials to respond!  Other than some mounted police, no one with animal control showed in time to save the animal.  Some cops told passers by that the horse was just tranquilized.  However, others told reporters that it had in fact been euthanized.

All of this on the way to the subway.  Quite the afternoon!

Subway superintendent, Lloyd London, was in charge of a small group of transit workers when two of them were stuck by a train, killing one. A new report found that London was partly responsible for the death of transit worker, Marvin Franklin.

The investigation found that Mr. London had told the workers that he would act as a flagman and watch for oncoming trains, but then failed to do so. [NY Times]

In carrying the equipment across the tracks, the men were breaking multiple safety regulations. It was found that London should have ordered the men to take a safer route around to get the gear.

While the investigator’s report makes the results more “official,” we knew this to be the case back in May. Kristen, Franklin’s step-daughter, wrote a comment here on SUBWAYblogger about what had really happened.

I find it troubling that you put the blame on the workers. I am Mr. Franklin’s stepdaughter and if you knew anything you would get the facts straight and not believe everything the media spews at you. Mr. Hill came to my stepfather’s funeral and gave a very detailed account of what happened and by his account, they were following the instructions of their supervisor. This man has been part of my life for over 25 years and a transit worker for 22 years. He didn’t not take safety lightly. His supervisor failed to flag for him and his coworker. So, yes, it is an unfortunate tragedy but a tragedy that could have been avoided if his supervisor alerted them that #1 the track was active and #2 flagged the oncoming train that there were workers down there. – Kristen

So it seems that the majority of responsibility falls on the shoulders of London as supervisor for telling the men to get the gear. However, it seems that smaller amount of responsibility is being placed on the men themselves for breaking known safety regulations.

Photo of transit workers working on tracks via flickr.