Two students were killed and seven others injured, some of them critically, when a driver struck members of a Tennessee college cycling team during a training ride. The tragedy hit the Milligan University community after what should have been a routine outing on the road turned into one of the deadliest incidents the small school has faced.
The crash happened on Wednesday morning on a highway in Carter County, in the northeastern corner of Tennessee. According to authorities, the group was riding along Highway 19E in the Hampton area when the vehicle plowed into the cyclists, scattering riders across the road and leaving a chaotic and devastating scene for first responders.
Milligan University said the team had been out on a training ride at the time of the collision. Eleven students were taking part in the ride when the vehicle hit them, and several of the injured were seriously hurt, with a number of patients airlifted by helicopter to hospitals in the region for emergency treatment.
The university identified the two students who died as Haylan Engdahl and Brayden Rogers, both sophomores. Their deaths sent shock waves through the campus and the tight-knit cycling program, with the school and its community left to grapple with the sudden loss of two young athletes who were doing something they loved.
Seven other members of the team were injured in the crash, several of them critically. Emergency crews responded quickly to the rural stretch of highway, and the severity of the injuries prompted the use of multiple medical helicopters to move the most badly hurt riders to trauma care as fast as possible.
Authorities took the driver into custody at the scene. The suspect was identified as John Benfield, 69, of Newland, North Carolina, who was booked into the Carter County Jail. He faces two counts of vehicular homicide by recklessness in connection with the deaths, along with five counts of aggravated assault by vehicle over the injuries to the surviving cyclists.
The case now heads into the criminal justice process as investigators continue to piece together exactly how the collision unfolded on the open highway. For Milligan University, the focus has turned to supporting the surviving riders and the families of the two students who were killed, as a community mourns a training ride that ended in catastrophe.