Two men were injured Saturday after a taxi cab crashed into a horse and buggy carriage outside Central Park. NY1's Amanda Farinacci filed the following report.

Central Park erupted into a scene of chaos early Saturday afternoon after witnesses say a taxi heading west from 60th Street toward Fifth Avenue hit an empty horse and buggy carriage before slamming into a brick wall.

"Actually he was coming very high speed, too, cause you see the big hole he made in the wall, he was coming very, very fast," said one witness.

"All of a sudden I heard this loud thump and I saw a horse going over toward Fifth Avenue, loose, before I saw a couple of drivers, the carriage drivers, stop the horse and there was a cab driver I assume it was now laying in the street," said another witness.

The horse carriage was crushed, as was the hood of the taxi. Both the driver of the carriage and the taxi were taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries.

The horse, Blackie, was not hurt in the accident. He was taken to a nearby stable to be checked by a vet.

"The horse got a little startled, to be honest with you, for such a large bang, the horse didn't overreact in any shape or form and he was corralled within four, five seconds of it happening," said Stephen Malone of the Horse and Carriage Association.

Animal activists say the accident is a perfect example of why horse drawn carriages should not be operated in the city.

"Cars crash into carriages, they crash into the horses, and horses are prey animals; they spook by any number of stimuli," said animal rights activist Donny Moss.

"Normally there are a lot more street vendors; they've cracked down on street vendors, put them more in towards the park, it could have been a really ugly scene because there's normally street vendors right there where that cab went right through the wall. That would have been the big tragedy," Malone said.

The Horse and Carriage Association says it is working with the city to come up with ways to make the streets safer for the horses and their carriage drivers.