Two Milligan cyclists killed in Tennessee highway crash

Two members of Milligan University’s cycling team were killed and seven others were injured Wednesday when a vehicle struck team members during a training ride on a rural highway in eastern Tennessee, officials said. The driver, a 69-year-old North Carolina man, has been arrested.

Milligan President Stephen Waers identified the students who died as sophomores Haylan Engdahl and Brayden Rogers. He said 11 cyclists were on the training ride when the crash occurred Wednesday morning. CBS News reported Waers said the crash happened at about 8 a.m. local time, while NBC News reported officials said it occurred around 9 a.m. on Highway 19 in Carter County.

“I would like to invite the entire community into prayer with us, into grief with the families, with us, and into deep prayer for the families of those we have lost,” Waers said at a news conference.

The crash happened in the community of Hampton, about 10 miles east of Milligan’s campus in Elizabethton, the university said. Milligan is a small Christian liberal arts college in northeastern Tennessee, around 12 miles from the North Carolina border. The Tennessee Highway Patrol said the collision occurred on a rural highway; a highway patrol source told CBS News it was in a mountainous area.

Officials did not release detailed circumstances of the crash during the news conference. Tennessee Highway Patrol Maj. Roy Brown said investigators were still trying to determine what happened.

“Our troopers are now trying to determine exactly what happened,” Brown said. He also said the investigation continues and that some facts could change as witnesses are interviewed and evidence is examined. “We know the families and Milligan University deeply want answers, and we want to provide those answers,” he said.

First Judicial District Attorney General Steven Finney said the driver, identified as John Benfield of Newland, North Carolina, was taken into custody on two counts of vehicular homicide by recklessness and five counts of aggravated assault by vehicle by recklessness.

“We will keep trying and working, additional charges could come,” Finney said.

Online jail records showed Benfield had been booked and did not indicate that he had bonded out, NBC News reported. Attempts to contact someone associated with him through public records were not immediately successful, and it was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf, NBC News reported.

Several injured cyclists were taken to Johnson City Medical Center, including some by medical helicopter, officials said. Ballad Health Chief Operating Officer Eric Deaton said two victims were transported by helicopter. Dr. Bracken Burns, the hospital’s trauma medical director, said seven patients were received: four were in critical condition, two were in stable condition and one was evaluated and released. Ballad Health said Wednesday evening that six of the seven injured students remained hospitalized, with two stabilized and receiving care in the medical-surgical unit and four in critical condition in the surgical intensive care unit.

Finney described the Milligan cyclists as highly trained athletes.

“This is an elite cycling team. It’s not a bunch of just club guys getting together to ride. They know what they’re doing,” he said.

Sam Rogers, who said he passed by the accident, told NBC News he first saw Carter County sheriff’s vehicles and ambulances arriving before coming upon the scene.

“I was horrified to see numerous crumpled bikes. There was a person on the road injured and another covered in blood being helped,” Rogers said. “The bicycles were completely destroyed.”