NORTHAMPTON — The mother of Jesse Johansmeyer, a Northampton teenager who tragically died in 2023 while at a bonfire party in Hatfield, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the owners and driver of the truck that killed her son that night.
Johansmeyer, a 2022 Northampton High School graduate who was 19 at the time of his death, died after being struck by the truck as panicked teenagers fled the bonfire, located in a corn field near Great Neponset Road and South Street in Hatfield after believing the police were on their way to the location.
As the driver was a minor at the time of the incident, the Gazette is not publishing their name, but the lawsuit also names Tyler Ovitt, a Williamsburg resident and the registered owner of the vehicle, and Jacob Erali, a resident of Heath who had leased the truck.
The lawsuit, filed on Sept. 12 in Hampshire Superior Court by Johansmeyer’s mother Darlene Thorpe, states that the teenage driver of the vehicle was “unlicensed, incompetent and/or unfit to drive,” and that Ovitt and Erali had “negligently entrusted” the use of the truck.
“As direct and proximate cause of [the defendants’] negligence, Jesse Johansmeyer was caused great pain and conscious suffering up until the moment of his death,” the document states. “The estate of Jesse Johansmeyer and its beneficiaries have lost the value of Jesse Johansmeyer’s reasonably expected net income, services, protection, care, assistance, society, companionship, comfort, guidance, counsel and advice.”
The lawsuit in total contains nine counts of wrongful death against the driver, Ovitt and Erali with regards to negligence, punitive damages and conscious pain and suffering. Thorpe is also demanding a jury trial for all counts named.
Johansmeyer’s family has become more vocal in recent months after the driver was found not delinquent, the juvenile court equivalent of not guilty, on the charge of negligent motor vehicle homicide. The family has also highlighted how after being struck in Hatfield, Johansmeyer lay on the ground for 45 minutes until someone called 911 and he was taken to the hospital.
An account named “Jessesjustice” on social media platform TikTok, run by Johansmeyer’s sister Willow Vandoloski, has gained more than 11,000 followers since its creation in June.
“For the past two years my family has been silenced, but today that changes,” Vandoloski says in a video that has over 300,000 views on the account. “The time has come to speak the unbearable truth, to tell the world exactly what happened to Jesse that night.”
The account also links to a petition for the creation of a state law that would require bystanders to call 911 in emergency situations. More than 7,200 people have signed the petition, hosted on the website change.org.
“Had someone dialed 911, everything could be completely different. Jesse could still be here with us,” Thorpe said in an interview with the Gazette in June. “If we do accomplish this, and if it can save just one life, everything we’re trying to do here is worth it, because I would not want to see another family go through what we have had to go through.”
Thorpe’s attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Attempts to reach Ovitt and Erali were also unsuccessful.