Sam Spielberg died in a car accident on February 22. He was 31, he has a daughter and he grew up in Springs. I grew up with him and in grade school and high school. In grade school, we were pretty good friends and used to spend a lot of time together hanging out with a group of about five other Springs kids.
The East Hampton Town Police Department in conjunction with the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating a motor vehicle accident that occurred on Red Dirt Road, Amagansett, west of Old Stone Highway. Responding police officers and Amagansett Fire Department personnel located a 2002 Toyota 4Runner off of the roadway and on fire. After the fire was extinguished, the single occupant of the vehicle was found deceased. Preliminary investigation indicates that this vehicle failed to negotiate a curve in the roadway, left the roadway striking trees and overturning.
As I type this, I was just informed by a friend of mine who also knew Sam that another guy from our class, Francois Mitchell, died on the exact same road in a car accident several years ago. Francois also left behind a child.
I’m just so sorry to hear this news. Springs is going through a big loss today. One of its sons, very well known sons I might add, has been taken from this world way too soon. I can’t even really process it, it just seems surreal. I just said hello to Sam randomly the other day in K-Mart in Bridgehampton with his daughter. Although I lost touch with him a long time ago and we never really spent much time together in high school, I always felt proud of him when I saw him. He was always with his daughter looking after her whenever I ran into him getting a coffee at Damark’s Deli or on Main Street in Amagansett.
This news is unbearable for a lot of people in East Hampton. My heart goes out to everybody that knew Sam well.
Oh, I am so sorry to hear this, David. My heart goes out to everyone who knew him, especially his family & daughter.
I am the mother of Francois (Mitchell) Robinette’s child. I just wanted to add that a lot of people are unaware that Francois actually left behind 2 children. The day after the funeral I found out I was pregnant with his son. He has 2 beautiful kids now. Vanessa is now 11 and Brandon will be 10 in May. I know that Francois’ and Sam in grade school hung out a lot too. I remember Sam would be around every once in while in highschool. I went to see where the scene of the accident was and it was literally across the street from where Francois’ had his accident. 15 feet if that at most. Its a very sad situation that I still think about everyday and now another little girl has to grow up with just memories of her dad. My condolences to Sam’s family as I know they sent theirs when Francois’ passed 10 years ago.