Aug 14, 2012 6:24 PM

Gregg Saunders, 55, of Sagaponack was killed in a head-on collision on Montauk Highway in East Hampton Village last Thursday. A partner at Philips International Holding Company, Mr. Saunders was a real estate developer, mostly to the west, who this spring had opened a Whole Foods grocery store at the former Plitt Ford car dealership in Wainscott.

Mr. Saunders was on his way from Southampton to East Hampton to meet a friend at Nichol’s restaurant for an 11:30 a.m. appointment on Thursday. The accident took place on Montauk Highway just east of Green Hollow Road, less than a mile away from the restaurant, and it was reported to East Hampton Village Police at 11:41 a.m.

Village Police said that Benjamin Rechler, 19, of Brookville, New York, was headed west in a 2010 Audi SUV when he reached into the back seat to adjust a surfboard that had shifted, and while doing so crossed into the oncoming lane of traffic. His car collided with the 2012 Prius Mr. Saunders was driving.

Mr. Saunders was pronounced dead at Southampton Hospital, where he had been taken by Amagansett Ambulance after being freed from his car by East Hampton Fire Department rescue volunteers.

Mr. Rechler was treated for minor injuries at Southampton Hospital and released, as was his passenger, Taylor Frank, 17, of Brookville. A third car was hit from behind as its driver stopped suddenly to avoid the accident, but no one was hurt in those two vehicles, which were driven by Robert Pyrt, 46, of Seaford, with three passengers, and Lindsay Murphy, 19, of Montauk, who had one passenger.

Montauk Highway was closed between Cove Hollow Road and Stephen Hands Path for approximately five hours on Thursday, reopening at 5 p.m., while police investigated the accident. No criminal charges were lodged against Mr. Rechler, although he was ticketed for failing to keep right and crossing the pavement markings by driving left of the center line.

According to Village Police Chief Jerry Larsen, Mr. Saunders had been wearing a seat belt. His appointment last Thursday was with Bob Schaeffer, who writes a column about Wainscott for The Press and knew Mr. Saunders as an East Hampton Town Planning Board member involved with the Whole Foods project.

Mr. Schaeffer said he was not sure what Mr. Saunders wanted to speak to him about at Nichol’s, but suspected that Mr. Saunders was interested in purchasing the old Star Room property, once home to the Swamp. The property is on the north side of Montauk Highway only three buildings down from Whole Foods in Wainscott.

As Mr. Schaeffer writes in a Press Box in this issue, Mr. Saunders called him at 11 a.m. on Thursday to say he was on his way and expected to make it on time if traffic allowed. When Mr. Saunders failed to show up at Nichol’s at 11:30, Mr. Schaeffer called to postpone their appointment because he had a lunch date; his was the last call to Mr. Saunders’s phone.

Mr. Saunders was “lively, entrepreneurial, a regular guy,” Mr. Schaeffer said. He said Mr. Saunders was “very, very bright, fun and focused.”

Mr. Saunders had purchased a farmhouse known as “the four-square,” after its architectural style, on Hedges Lane in Sagaponack from the Peconic Land Trust. When he expanded the house and added accessory structures, it created controversy in the village about whether stricter limits should have been imposed.

“He was a good guy, a bit controversial—all developers are,” Mr. Schaeffer said.

“People I knew who had dealt with him liked him,” Mr. Schaeffer added.

Mr. Rechler, the other driver in the accident, is the son of Mitchell Rechler of Rechler Equity Partners, the developers who own the Canoe Place Inn property in Hampton Bays. Mitchell Rechler and Mr. Saunders were not acquainted, according to a spokesman for Mitchell Rechler.

The developer issued a statement on Friday. “Our family is heartbroken by this horrific tragedy,” it said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Saunders family.”

Burial was at Mount Ararat Cemetery in Farmingdale following a service for Mr. Saunders at Star of David Chapel in 
Babylon. At the chapel’s web page, the family suggested donations, in lieu of flowers, to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons.