“WE need justice!” It’s an almost daily cry from Jamaicans who are either complaining about the lack of a service — any service; or who are angry at agents of the State whom they accuse of extrajudicial killings.

Now, the cry for equity is coming from angry donkey cart operators — mostly farmers — who travel on the busy Mandela Highway that links Kingston with St Catherine and other parishes west of the capital city.

The appeal was made last Friday after one of their colleagues — a Kingston farmer — was struck from his cart by a minibus travelling from Spanish Town to Kingston.

The man, whose name the Jamaica Observer was unable to ascertain, has been admitted to hospital in serious condition, the farmers said.

“We need justice,” said a distraught Violet Perrin, who also farms in Kingston. “The motorist dem using the road as if it is for dem alone.”

Police report that about 9:00 am the farmer was attempting to cross the busy highway on his donkey-drawn cart when the crash occurred.

“The impact of the crash mash up the cart; all the donkey get injured,” said another furious cart operator as he tried to collect what

was left of the wrecked wooden carriage.

The operators said the incident was not the first to take place on the highway since the start of the year.

“This is about the seventh case where cart operators ah use the road wid dem donkey and people wid dem vehicle just come bulldoze wi offa di road like wi nuh recognise,” said Louis Brown,

another farmer.

Brown said the situation is made worse whenever they attempt to voice their concern, as their lives are threatened.

The claim was corroborated by Joseph Henderson, another farmer who owns a donkey cart. “Ah pure slackness a gwaan. When these things happen and yuh talk bout it, all yuh life dem (motorists) a threaten,” he told the Observer.

“We want dem know seh dis ah our livelihood; ah so we earn instead a go tief. Di youth dem a do little hustling wid dem donkey cart,” said Henderson.

But while the cart operators are fuming, police are claiming that on many occasions they are not following the rules of the road.

“The problem with donkey cart operators using the roads incorrectly has been a long-standing issue,” said one cop at Ferry Police Station who asked not to be named, as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

He said, too, that donkey cart operators travelling on the road outside of the permitted time of 6:00 am to 6:00 pm was another big problem.

Added one detective who is investigating the crash: “There is also another issue; how these animals are sometimes treated by these farmers, we believe, can be best described as cruelty to animals and needs to be looked into.”

But the farmers have rubbished that claim.

“Because ah dem and dem technology, dem nuh consider us donkey cart operators. A long time donkey and cart around, so how all of a sudden dem having a problem with cart operators?” asked one of the farmers.

The police, though, said it is difficult to regulate the cart operators as they are not organised as a group.