Another Fatal Accident On Old Stone Highway Leads To Indictment For Driver

Daniel McHugh Campbell, 20, who East Hampton Town police say struck and killed a Manhattan teen on Old Stone Highway in Amagansett this past August, then fled the scene, only to be picked up in Montauk by officers about three hours later, was arraigned in the courtroom of New York State Justice Richard Ambro on Wednesday, January 5, after being indicted by a grand jury on a single felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident involving the serious injury or death of a victim. That is the crime East Hampton Town police initially charged him with, in the early morning hours of August 11, 2021.

Police made the charge in connection with a fatal hit-and-run accident just before midnight on Old Stone Highway on August 10 in Amagansett. Family members of the victim, Devesh Kishore Samtani, 18, were in the courtroom for the arraignment, and spoke to the press afterwards.

Campbell, who lives with his parents in their year-round home in Hastings-on-the-Hudson, but was spending the summer in Montauk, turned 20 years old a couple weeks after his arrest.

The incident was the second time in less than 10 years that a teenager with a bright future, according to their respective families, lost their lives after being struck by a vehicle from behind on a half-mile stretch of the winding, extremely narrow Old Stone Highway, a road that has no shoulder for pedestrians to walk on for many stretches, including the locations where the two teens were killed.

Samtani was struck by the 2012 Honda Pilot, a four-door suburban-style vehicle being driven by Campbell but registered to his father who bears the same name but a different middle initial, according to the police, just before midnight August 10. Samtani has a Park Avenue address in Manhattan, as well as a one in Hong Kong, but was staying with his aunt and uncle in their Amagansett summer rental at the time of the accident. He was scheduled to start his first semester at New York University the month he was killed, his family said.

At 10:29 the night of Samtani’s death, police received a noise complaint about an out-of-control party on Timber Lane, very close to the scene of the accident.

Campbell told police, in a three-hour statement he made to them after his arrest in the early morning hours of August 11, that, using his phone’s GPS, he had driven his 17-year-old sister from their summer home in Montauk to the party, where several of her friends were. Word of the party had spread like a wildfire through social media. By the time Campbell and his sister arrived, they came upon a chaotic scene. Campbell said there were about 800 to 1,000 teens in the area outside the property, and an equal number on the property itself.

Police were in the process of breaking up the party. Campbell’s sister went to look for her friends, eight of whom ended up back in the Honda Pilot. Campbell began to drive away, he told police, headed north on Old Stone Highway. Police were directing traffic, but the sheer number of teens wandering on the narrow unlit roads was difficult to control. At many points on Old Stone Highway, there is literally no shoulder to walk on.

According to Campbell, he was doing about 25 mph when he saw Samtani walking with several other teens north, with his back to traffic. Campbell said that the victim stopped suddenly, stepping out onto the roadway, and turned around, sticking out his thumb, as if to hitch a ride, when Campbell struck him. He said he continued for about 90 feet, stopped and walked back to see Samtani, then returned to the vehicle and drove away. “I wasn’t thinking clearly and I didn’t know what to do,” he told detectives, adding that he “panicked.”

According to the police accident report, they fund Samtani unconscious, bleeding internally from the head. He was taken to Southampton Hospital, then flown to Stony Brook’s trauma center. Police were notified of his death about 72 hours later.

Campbell told detectives in his statement that he drove all eight of his sister’s friends, most of whom were about 16 years old, home, though the prosecutor on the case, Ray Varuolo, said during the arraignment that Campbell actually drove his sister’s friends to another party, then returned to his family’s house on Second House Road alone with his sister. Their parents were asleep when they entered, according to Campbell’s statement. His sister went to her room while Campbell said he went outside to check the damage on the passenger side of the Honda from the accident.

When he saw the extent of the damage, he realized that Samtani was likely either seriously injured or deceased, he said in his statement, a point Varoulo reiterated in court.

He then took in a different car belonging to the family and drove to The Dock on West Lake Drive to talk with a friend about what had happened.

Police were soon knocking on the Second House Road door. According to Varoulo, a witness to the accident called police with the license plate number on the Honda. His parents called Campbell and returned to their summer house, leading to his arrest and his statement to police at headquarters in Wainscott.

He told police he had not been drinking or taking drugs, including Xanax, for which he has a prescription. He also said in his statement that he allowed police to draw blood. There were no alcohol or drug-related charges brought by the grand jury, who would have had all materials gathered by police before making their decision.

Ambro had no decision to make during the arraignment in regard to bail, as the felony crime Campbell is charged with does not allow bail to be set under New York law.

Samtani’s family has set up a scholarship in his memory at NYU.

Samtani’s aunt and uncle, Jennifer and Jeff Kurani, with whom he had been staying, spoke afterwards. The victim’s parents, Mala and Kishore Samtani, live in Hong Kong, they said. It was with the Kurani family he was going to live if he had started his freshman year at NYU as originally planned. He was going to study math and economics there, his aunt said.

According to a spokesman for the family, Michael Kosowski, Kurani was like a second mother to the victim. She described her nephew: “He was kind, loving, family-oriented, so happy. He was the pride and joy of the family. He is missed. He is gone from our lives, and our lives are never going to be the same.”

“Everyone is still in trauma, in shock, and they are still trying to get through that,” Kurani said. “I don’t think we are ever going to come out of it,” the victim’s uncle added.

A little more than 9 years earlier, in 2012, on the afternoon of June 23, Jeffrey Ahn Jr., unable to get a taxi from the Amagansett train station, walked north on Old Stone Highway, when he was struck and killed by a taxi close to where his family’s summer home on Arbor Path, about a half mile south of the latest tragic accident. No charges were brought against the driver in that case.

As with Samtani’s family, Ahn’s family described him in his death notice in The New York Times as an artistic and creative force.

Campbell’s attorney, Edward Burke Jr., called the accident a true tragedy. He pointed to the conditions on Old Stone Highway, calling it a “very dangerous roadway.”

Another man was recently convicted of leaving the scene of a fatal accident in Amagansett. Mark Corrado, formerly of West Babylon, is currently serving a 16 to 48 month sentence. He is being housed in a downstate facility preparatory to being shipped upstate.