A year ago a car drove right through the house of Frans Verhagen in Boxtel. His home had just been renovated, but due to the accident, the entire front had to be rebuilt. Now, a year later, nothing can be seen of it anymore. However, the accident has had a great impact on French. “You have to give it a place.”
Verhagen remembers well that morning. Around a quarter past five he woke up from a hard thump. “A kind of earthquake. I immediately knew what was going on: something had to be driven against the house or something had to be fell on,” he said a year ago.
He could no longer open the front door, because it was no longer there. The car was on its side. “It’s all very unreal. It’s just like walking in a movie.”
His wife called 112, after which emergency services quickly arrived. The man who had driven against his house was trapped in his car. The fire brigade certainly took an hour to free him, Verhagen recalls.
“Otherwise you live on the street.”
He then immediately called the insurance. “Then everything will run automatically.” He called in a contractor because he thought it was better to outsource it through the impact. “Then you don’t have to do much about it. It all went very smoothly.”
His wife and he were not allowed to go into the house at first. “The fire brigade must first secure it; there was a hole in the wall. When it was after an hour, we were allowed back into the house.” A construction company closed the gap. “Otherwise you live on the street, and of course that is not possible.”
“I understand what those people are going through.”
The accident in Beek en Donk, where Tuesday a car entered a house, hit him. “I understand what those people are going through. It comes in every time.” He himself was able to process the event. “You have to give it a place, because it has more impact than you want.”
“The entire front had to be removed and rebuilt,” says Verhagen. When the house was fully recovered, he thought peace. “Then it was over.”
“Then let it go.”
For people who experience the same, he has clear advice. “Let it get over you and talk to you. It is very important to give it a place.” But, he adds: “Then let it go. The chance is so small that it will happen again. You don’t have to assume that, because then you have no life anymore.”
