A 25-year-old Amagansett man was killed in a one-car accident early Saturday morning after his truck left the roadway and struck a utility pole.The man, Erik D. Payne, was wearing his seat belt at the time of the accident, police said, but died when his 2001 Ford pickup truck struck the pole.East Hampton Town Police said that they received a call about the accident shortly after 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Police and Amagansett Fire Department crews responded to the scene but found Mr. Payne unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene by a Suffolk County medical examiner later that morning.An investigation of the accident is ongoing, but police said this week that Mr. Payne was driving north on Windmill Lane in Amagansett when his truck apparently drifted onto the shoulder, where the tires hit snow piled alongside the roadway, causing the vehicle to jerk to the right and into the utility pole.Captain Chris Anderson said that officers investigating the crash were looking at the possibility that Mr. Payne had fallen asleep at the wheel and drifted off the roadway on a gradual curve in the road. He said speed was not believed to have been a factor.Mr. Payne grew up in Amagansett, graduated from East Hampton High School, worked at a local auto repair shop during the day, and was a bartender and played in a band at night.Messages of grief and condolences filtered throughout the East Hampton community as word of Mr. Payne’s death spread.“He was just one of the nicest guys you ever knew,” said a neighbor, Cathy Hansen. “If you ever needed anything he was there to do it. He was fun to be around. He was an amazing artist, both musically and he used to do these beautiful paintings on guitars. He was a hard worker doing his best to survive. This is so tragic.”The messages plastered across the ether of Facebook were transcribed in chalk onto the chalkboard of Wolfie’s Tavern in Springs, where Mr. Payne worked a part-time second job tending bar at night.“These kids have been coming in here in tears,” said his boss at Wolfie’s Tavern, Gino Bombace. “His friends came in and drew their messages to him on our blackboards—‘forever in our hearts.’ They are just kids, you know, and they were in tears. That’s really how people felt about him. It’s so upsetting.”Mr. Bombace said that Mr. Payne had been working part-time at the tavern for a little more than six months but had not worked on the night of his death.Mr. Payne graduated from East Hampton High School in 2007 and from the Baran Institute of Technology, where he studied auto body repair, in 2009.He was also the lead singer of the locally popular band Casanova Frankenstein.He is survived by his mother, Diane Lutzen-Payne; father Wesley Payne and wife Virginia; and sisters Christina Fuller, Erin Easter and Nicole Payne and their families.A graveside service will be held on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Oak Grove Cemetery. The family asks that donations in Mr. Payne’s name be made to Elsa’s Ark.
Michael Wright on Mar 14, 2015