Easthampton family left shaken, houseless after car crashes into home

Easthampton Public Safety received a 911 call at 8:30 on Oct. 11 reporting a car that had crashed into a Parsons Street residence.

Easthampton Public Safety received a 911 call at 8:30 on Oct. 11 reporting a car that had crashed into a Parsons Street residence. EASTHAMPTON FIRE DEPARTMENT, FACEBOOK—

Easthampton Public Safety received a 911 call at 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 11 reporting a car that had crashed into a Parsons Street residence.

Easthampton Public Safety received a 911 call at 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 11 reporting a car that had crashed into a Parsons Street residence. EASTHAMPTON FIRE DEPARTMENT/VIA FACEBOOK

The crash last Friday badly damaged the home Kimberly and Jason Vanasse shared with his mother in Easthampton.

The crash last Friday badly damaged the home Kimberly and Jason Vanasse shared with his mother in Easthampton. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Kimberly and Jason Vanasse, who lived in the upstairs apartment at their home in Easthampton, talk about how close the car came to hitting Jason on the night it hit their home. The vehicle crashed through his mother’s room on the first floor.

Kimberly and Jason Vanasse, who lived in the upstairs apartment at their home in Easthampton, talk about how close the car came to hitting Jason on the night it hit their home. The vehicle crashed through his mother’s room on the first floor. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Sherry Stockwell-Tompkins stands in her bedroom showing the damage from the car that ran into the front of the Easthampton home she shares with her son and daughter-in-law.

Sherry Stockwell-Tompkins stands in her bedroom showing the damage from the car that ran into the front of the Easthampton home she shares with her son and daughter-in-law. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

By ALEXA LEWIS

Staff Writer

Published: 10-18-2024 8:06 PM

EASTHAMPTON — Jason Vanasse stood in his driveway, washing the windows of his work vehicle, when a car came speeding down the road, jumped the curb, and crashed into his home. He says the vehicle missed him by only a few inches, and the anxiety it induced still has not subsided.

Now the family is unsure where they will live after the incident last Friday made their Parsons Street residence uninhabitable, causing major structural damage and rendering their electrical system defunct.

“Every wall in the upstairs apartment is now cracked,” said his wife, Kimberly Vanasse, as she held back tears. “The whole house moved on its frame.”

Kimberly Vanasse was in Greenfield with Jason Vanasse’s 71-year-old mother, who also lives with them, at the time of the crash. She recalled the shock of returning home to the destruction left behind by the car, which she said tore “right through” her mother-in-law’s bedroom, sending her bed and cedar chest “flying across the room.”

According to the Easthampton Fire Department, Easthampton Public Safety received a 911 call at around 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 11 following the incident. Police and Fire Department crews arrived on the scene to find the operator trapped in the vehicle, who they were able to extricate using hydraulic extraction equipment. Paramedics then transported the person to the trauma center.

Easthampton Detective Lieutenant Eric Alexander said the driver was traveling from East Street onto Parsons street when the crash occurred, and declined to provide information about the driver’s identity or health status. The incident is still under investigation, with potential charges pending, he said.

Eversource also responded to the scene to secure the building’s power, as the electrical service was severely compromised, and the city building inspector arrived to assist the emergency crews with assessment of the structure. These crews were able to remove the car from the building, which they secured from further damage.

But Kimberly Vanasse said that the damage already done was more than enough to render their home uninhabitable.

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“We’re homeless now,” she said. “We have no idea where we’re going to go.”

For the first few nights following the incident, the family was able to stay either with Jason Vanasse’s aunt or in a camper in the yard. But the gas to run the camper’s generator can be expensive, Kimberly Vanasse explained, and she and her husband are currently not working. She has been out on workers’ compensation due to an injury, and her husband has not been back to work since the incident due to the trauma it caused, as well as the significant damage to his work vehicle.

Kimberly Vanasse explained that the incident has shaken the entire family to its core, and that her husband’s doctor recommended that he enter a “partial hospitalization program” for his mental health in its aftermath.

“We’re all on medication now, for anxiety,” she said. The couple lives with their 19-year-old daughter in addition to Jason’s mother, as well as their six cats and two dogs.

The Vanasses said the driver of the vehicle did not have enough insurance to cover the damages, and that their own insurance funding has not yet come through. They have reached out to several disaster relief organizations, such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army, but the couple said that these agencies have been able to offer only a small fraction of the support they could usually provide, due to their resources being diverted southward for hurricane relief efforts.

Kimberly Vanasse expressed that she feels “very lucky” to still have her husband, as he had been “eight inches away from dying” that night. Still, she and her family are struggling to find a place to stay while they reconcile the trauma of that night.

“It’s going to take months before we can get back into our home,” she said. “I just don’t know what we’re gonna do.”

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.