Student Struck and Killed

By T.E. McMorrow |

    Jeffrey Ahn, an honor student at the Trinity School in Manhattan, was struck and killed by a taxicab as he walked along Old Stone Highway from the Amagansett train station toward his family’s house on Arbor Lane on Saturday afternoon. He was 17.
“Just a tragic, tragic accident,” East Hampton Town Police Chief Edward Ecker said on Sunday. “There wasn’t any drinking or drugs involved here,” the chief said of the driver of the Lindy’s taxi, Ladislav Smigura.
“We’ve been coming here as long as I can remember,” Presca Ahn, Mr. Ahn’s sister, said on Tuesday. “He was excited about the week ahead.” Mr. Ahn’s school year had ended the previous week.
Normally, Ms. Ahn said, Mr. Ahn might have phoned their mother, who was in the Arbor Lane house. But on Saturday, he was with two childhood friends and his girlfriend, Penelope Farris. Not wanting to inconvenience his mother, the four left the station and began the mile journey on foot, a trip he had made many times.
They were walking single file on the right-hand side of the road, northbound, with their backs to traffic. They were nearing the house. “There’s no shoulder there,” Chief Ecker said. “It’s a very narrow road.”
Mr. Smigura, on his way to pick up a fare, apparently came around a bend in the road, saw the four, and tried to avoid hitting them. The passenger-side mirror of the 2004 Ford minivan struck Ms. Farris from behind and then struck Mr. Ahn. He was thrown forward and suffered major head trauma. He was pronounced dead at Southampton Hospital upon arrival. Ms. Farris was treated for minor bruises and scrapes and released.
He had been visiting Ivy League schools in recent weeks and was looking forward to applying to Yale. “He could have been anything he wanted,” his sister said.   


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by Anonymous | June 28, 2012 - 8:50pm
My heart aches and my stomach hurts. What a senseless tragedy.
by Anonymous | June 29, 2012 - 5:42am
From what I could tell, the accident did NOT occur at a bend in the road. From where the chalk marks were, these walkers should have been highly visible. It doesn't add up.
by Anonymous | July 2, 2012 - 5:23pm
It is high time something is done in East Hampton to put a stop to the crazy driving that is taking over our town. As a child you could ride a bike or take a walk and there was very little danger of being killed by an oncoming car. With the overcrowded roads drivers should ASSUME people and especially children may be on the streets. This is a residential small town, not a crazed city where taxis and trucks speed from one job to the next. Ill bet anything this driver is new to the area and was going way too fast on what everyone who lives here knows is a curvy, narrow road. I live on Egypt Lane and have watched my beautiful and peaceful street turn into what feels like an expressway for laborers, delivery trucks, and entitled New Yorkers in oversized vehicles racing to their next cocktail party. How many more kids are going to be killed before the police and the town start taking this problem seriously? I am very sorry for this poor boy' s family. What a waste. It is up to the real residents of East Hampton to get together to help put a stop to this terrible behavior.