Motorists want laws to tackle stray cattle causing deadly threat on roads

Motorists who face regular encounters with cows, especially at night, on the roads, have been raising safety concerns and calling for the government to pass the necessary laws to curtail the threat of deadly crashes caused by cattle.

Senior attorney-at-law Leonard Green, president of the Advocates’ Association of Jamaica, who did thorough research on the laws, said the Jamaican 1851 Trespass Act that is dedicated to cattle trespass, imposes no duty on the owners to ensure public safety.

Green sees the need, like many motorists, for immediate amendment to the act to place civil and criminal liability on such owners.

The Dogs (Liability for Attacks) Act was passed in 2020, providing for criminal and civil liability on an owner of a dog that attacks, injures and/or causes the death of a person. Green said such an amendment should be done speedily to the Trespass Act to protect citizens. The 2020 act repealled the Dogs (Liability for Injuries by) Act of 1877, which had not been amended since its enactment. It had no provision for criminal sanctions or for the negligence of persons whose dogs attacked or injured members of the public.

Dr Lucien Jones, vice chairman of the National Road Safety Council, announced last week that, so far, six people had died this year on roadways in Jamaica in crashes involving stray animals. Five of the crashes involved cattle straying on to the roadway and one was caused by a dog suddenly running on to the roadway.

One of the victims was 22-year-old police constable Tajay Ebanks, who was killed after the car he was driving crashed into a cattle along the Mango Hill main road in Westmoreland.

Eleven-year-old Jevaughnie Smith, of St Mary, lost his life on March 1 because of a cattle. He was pillion on a motorcycle when the driver lost control when a cattle suddenly ran out from a pasture into the roadway, causing a collision.

Jones has described the situation as “madness’ and has called for the police, residents and the local government ministry to find a way to locate the owners of those cattle. He emphasised that animals were supposed to be tagged and there was a prescribed manner in which they should be moved.

Citizens outraged

The accidents have left citizens outraged that stray animals are causing so many accidents and deaths.

“Last year my car got damaged when it collided with a cow one night on a poorly lit road in Portland and I had to pay to fix my vehicle and I really think something should be done about the owners of these animals,” complained Adrian Brown, a motorist.

Another motorist, John Smith, recounted that he nearly lost his life in 2019 when his minibus collided with a cattle in St Elizabeth.

“I was driving and, before I knew it, a cow stepped right in the road in front of my bus. Luckily I was able to step on the brake suddenly and minor damage was done to my bus,” Smith said last week as he responded to reports that several people lost their lives this year from accidents involving cattle.

Smith said although he informed a policeman what took place, he was shocked when the policeman told him that the police did not have the authority to charge the owner. The government must pass laws so that these cattle-owners can be taken to court for their negligent and selfish actions, Smith pleaded.

Then just last week Friday a female motorist, Janet Ebanks, had a scare when she was driving from May Pen, Clarendon to Kingston.

“Just a few miles out of the town, a cow jumped from the embankment into the road just about three feet from my car. I was so shocked. When I looked across I saw about 30 cows in a pasture which had a fence about four feet high and I am very concerned why that fence is so low. There should be guidelines by the authorities as to how high the fence should be, certainly not four feet.

“When I thought I was at the end of the cow stress, as I drove further down the road, I saw about 15 cows or more crossing the busy road all by themselves and motorists had to be stopping to let them cross because they were not going across the road at the same spot or at the same time,” she recounted.

‘’The authorities must do everything in their power to prevent motorists from being hurt or killed by the negligence of these cow-owners,” she said.

Speaking with The Gleaner yesterday, Delroy Chuck, minister of justice, said, “There is merit in looking at legislation to penalise animal-owners who fail to control and care their animals, and where these animals through the negligence of their owners cause damage, injury and death the owners should be liable for compensation.”

Green, however, further explained that ‘the role of animals straying on to the highway/roadway has been given substantial consideration by the courts over several decades.

He pointed out that the rule in the case of Searle v Wallbank (1947) 1 All England Report 12: establishes that “the owner of a field abutting the highway is under no duty, on the one hand, to users of the highway to maintain his fence so as to prevent his animals from straying on to the highway, and on the other hand, he was under no duty as between himself and users of the highway to take reasonable care to prevent any of his animals (not known to be dangerous) from straying on to the highway.”

“The Jamaican (1851) Trespass Act on our books has a section that is dedicated to Cattle Trespass and it imposes a duty on the owner of stock to take measures to prevent ‘stock’ from trespassing on land of other persons, stock being defined as cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry.

‘The act allows farmers to recover damages for loss caused to agricultural crops, but imposes no duty on the owners of animals to ensure public safety by ensuring that their animals do not traverse the public space,” Green said.

Green said the United Kingdom Animals Act of 1971 has had the effect of imposing a duty of care on owners of animals because of the animals’ propensity to cause danger and were known or presumed to be known. Section 8 of the act imposes a duty “to take care to prevent damage from animals straying on the highway”.

He added, “In the absence of any statutory provisions in Jamaica, the common law rule in Searle v Wallbank is the law in Jamaica which imposes no duty of care on the owners of animals which stray on to the highway.”

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