UMass Student Killed in Car Crash After Rescuing Driver

Amherst, MA — Bradley N. Skikne, a 22-year-old student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an emergency medical technician, lost his life Sunday after rescuing another just a half hour before, police said.

“His desire and pleasure was to help people,” said Bradley’s parents, Michael, 52, and Michele, 49, in a statement to the Advocate. “He touched and enriched our lives beyond comprehension.”

Bradley, a Middleton native, lost control of his 2004 Toyota Matrix on Amherst Road in Pelham when his car careened into an embankment and then flipped over, according to Pelham Police Department Chief Edward Fleury. Skikne, who was not wearing a seatbelt, died instantly, Fleury said. Police are still investigating whether speed was a factor.

Yet 30 minutes earlier, Skikne was a Good Samaritan when he stopped at a head-on car crash on Route 2 in Athol – remaining vigilantly on the scene until state police and an ambulance arrived.

Frank W. Wozniak, 86, of Dracut, was killed in this accident after his car collided with another vehicle driven by Steven P. Harte of Easton, police said. Harte is now facing several charges including drunken driving and will be arraigned this week.

“Brad was a very, very loving person … who would do anything to help any person any time,” said Rabbi Simcha Levenberg of the Chabad of Five Colleges on the UMass Amherst campus where Bradley was actively involved. “I was shocked and I am still shocked about his death.”

Bradley was a biochemistry major, a promising student who was accepted into the honors program at the university, said Stan Gloss, 50, of Middleton, who is a close friend of the Skikne family. Bradley became so immersed in his Orthodox Jewish faith that he left UMass to pursue Judaic studies at Yeshiva University in New York. When he returned to Amherst, he knew that he wanted to pair his religious beliefs with his ability to help others.

“Here is a person who is almost at the height of his spirituality and it was his life’s mission to be dedicated to giving to people,” Gloss said. “But on the other side of the situation is tragedy. I think everyone is still struggling to try to make sense of this.”

On the Saturday night before his death, Bradley had been at his cousin’s bar mitzvah serving as the gabbai – making sure everything was in ritual order during the ceremony.

“He was just in his glory and at peace really,” Gloss said.

Rabbi Asher Bronstein of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Center of Merrimack Valley in Andover – Bradley’s home shul – said the area’s Jewish community and Bradley’s family will create a Torah scroll in his honor for the Chabad. Bradley was buried Monday in Danvers.

Said Bradley’s 14-year-old brother Shane of Middleton: “He was a great role model and brother and made an impression on all people who crossed his path.”