Jannette Jansen can’t remember much about it, but her injuries leave no room for doubt. She got through the eye of the needle on Monday 25 July. On the Jan Heijnstraat in Tilburg, she was hit by a car at the crossing at the Albert Heijn XL.
The driver drove on and left the 47-year-old woman seriously injured. “I still see this reckless monster’s car coming towards me every night in my dreams.”
Jannette does not know who hit her on Pink Monday and with what car. Camera images have not yet been found. De Tilburg hopes with the police that the call for witnesses will provide more leads. “It was a large gray car and it must have had damage to the hood and windscreen from the impact,” she says.
“I was still hoping the car would miss me.”
Jannette went shopping in the morning. “I crossed the green light around half past eleven and saw that car approaching at Max Verstappen speed. I was already halfway through and kept walking in the hope that he would just miss me.” According to Jannette, the car drove half on the other side of the road and scooped her anyway.
She landed on the hood and was launched. “I remember that I felt the rider wiper with my left cheek and heard the windshield crack,” says the Tilburg woman from the Merlinde rehabilitation center in Breda. She lost consciousness after the blow.
“Home came the pain, I must have been stiff with adrenaline.”
When she woke up in the street, an elderly lady was sitting next to her. “She put me in the car and brought me home.” Jannette has no idea who this lady is and would like to get in touch with her. “I must have been stiff with adrenaline, because at home came the excruciating pain.”
Afterwards she realizes that she should have waited for the police and ambulance at the crossing. “You’re just in a daze and just want to get out of there. I felt so watched,” she says. Her brother eventually takes Jannette to the doctor. She is shocked by her condition and immediately calls an ambulance.
“I’m heartbroken and have a very long way to go.”
Jannette suffered a severe concussion, bruised ribs, a tear in her pelvis and her back and cervical vertebrae are also damaged. She can’t just stand or walk and an operation will probably follow. “On the outside I mainly have bruises, but on the inside I’m broken. I still have a very long way to go.” Morphine makes the pain bearable.
She now has to rehabilitate in Breda for six weeks, after which home care will follow and there is a good chance that Jannette will have to live on with aids. That is painful, because she herself is a caregiver. “I am a psychiatric nurse at the Jeroen Bosch Hospital, but the question is whether I can ever physically handle that work again.”
“What possesses anyone to leave me there for dead?”
Jannette hopes for justice and that someone has images of the accident, the damaged car or recognizes the car. “Every detail can help catch this road pirate.” The car continued on Sint Ceciliastraat in the direction of Hart van Brabantlaan and may have gone in different directions after that.
In addition to justice, Jannette wants answers. “What possesses you to drive on and leave me there for dead?” She wants to make it clear to the perpetrator what the accident has done to her. “My whole life is turned upside down and I’m afraid I’ll be dependent for the rest of my life.”
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