Funeral Held For East Hampton Man Who Died In Single-Car Crash In Flanders

A funeral service was held on Saturday for an East Hampton man who was killed in a single-car accident in Flanders earlier this month.

Jhony Chumi-Rodas, 30, was driving a 2002 Dodge Ram pickup truck in the early morning of Sunday, August 4, when it crashed into a steel traffic light pole at the intersection of Flanders Road and Long Neck Boulevard, according to Southampton Town Police.

Detective Lieutenant James Kiernan said on Friday that there was no criminality detected at the scene of the accident and that the cause of death was still under investigation by the Suffolk County medical examiner’s office.

Members of the Flanders Fire Department who responded to the accident on August 4 had to extricate Mr. Chumi-Rodas from his truck. He was transported to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, where he was pronounced dead.

A funeral service was held for Mr. Chumi-Rodas on Saturday, August 10, at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton, according to a GoFundMe page started by his brother, Brandon Chumi, of East Hampton.

Brandon Chumi could not be reached for comment this week. However, he described his brother as “a very cheerful person [who] always had a smile on his face,” on the fundraiser page, which to date has collected more than $13,000 of its $15,000 goal.

“He left us with so many unforgettable memories that we will never be able to forget,” Mr. Chumi added.

The funds will be used to send Mr. Chumi-Rodas’s body back to Ecuador to allow his family to have a funeral and burial service there, according to the GoFundMe page.