A 69-year-old North Carolina man faces vehicular homicide charges after allegedly crashing into a group of Milligan University student-athletes on a morning training ride, killing two sophomores and critically injuring four others.
Haylan Engdahl and Brayden Rogers were pronounced dead at the scene on Highway 19E in Hampton, Tennessee, just before 9:00 a.m. Wednesday. The two sophomores were part of an 11-member cycling team riding roughly 11 miles from their campus when driver John Benfield, 69, of Newland, North Carolina, struck the group. Seven other riders were rushed to Johnson City Medical Center. Four remain in critical condition in the hospital's Surgical Intensive Care Unit. Two are listed as stable. One was evaluated and released.
Tennessee First Judicial District Attorney General Steven Finney charged Benfield with two counts of vehicular homicide by recklessness and five counts of aggravated assault by vehicle by recklessness. Benfield is being held in Carter County jail. Finney said additional charges may follow as the investigation continues, the New York Post reported.
Finney made one thing clear: the cyclists bore no blame.
"This is an elite cycling team. It's not a bunch of club guys getting together to ride. They know what they're doing."
The district attorney did not say whether Benfield was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash. That question remains unanswered, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol's investigation is ongoing.
Engdahl, a native of Winthrop Harbor, Illinois, had recently recovered from a broken femur suffered during a training crash in March. His Instagram documented the grueling rehabilitation. He was back on the bike and back with his team when Benfield's vehicle ended his life on a rural Tennessee highway.
Jeff Bogaczyk, head of school at Christian Life School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Engdahl attended high school, remembered him as "a beautiful person, infectious smile, magnetic personality, loved life." Rogers, the other cyclist killed, was from Huntsville, Alabama. Both were sophomores, barely into their college careers.
Fatal incidents on American roads continue to claim young lives with grim regularity. A deadly Virginia bus crash earlier this year that killed five, including two children, raised similar questions about driver accountability and road safety.
Wednesday's crash is not the first time Milligan University has lost a student-athlete to a reckless driver. On March 31, 2022, sophomore runner Eli Cramer was killed and two teammates were injured when a drunk driver struck them during a pre-track meet run in Lightfoot, Virginia. The driver, Jose Efrain Hernandez Mancia, pleaded guilty to DUI involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in prison in April 2023.
Two deadly crashes involving student-athletes from the same small university in four years. That is a burden no campus should have to carry twice.
Milligan University posted a statement on Facebook acknowledging the loss:
"We are profoundly shocked and saddened to share that members of our cycling team were in an accident involving a vehicle this morning while cycling. There are no words to adequately describe this level of loss. Our prayers are with all those impacted by this tragedy."
The Tennessee Highway Patrol's own statement reflected the weight of the day. Officials said it had been "an extraordinarily difficult day for a lot of people in upper East Tennessee," adding, "Families have lost loved ones. Others are waiting for news about people who were hurt. Teammates, coaches and an entire university community are trying to process something no one expected when this day began."
Incidents like these, sudden, violent, and largely preventable, carry echoes across communities far beyond the immediate victims. A skydiving plane crash in Missouri that killed 12 earlier this year left a similar wake of devastation in a tight-knit group.
Benfield's seven total charges, two for vehicular homicide and five for aggravated assault, account for the two dead and five of the seven injured cyclists. AP News reported the crash occurred on a 50 mph stretch of Highway 19, roughly 11 miles from the Milligan campus. Finney indicated additional charges could come as investigators finish their work, but offered no timeline.
Officials have not publicly identified the seven injured cyclists. Four remain in the Surgical ICU in critical condition, and their families are waiting for news that may not come quickly. Dr. Bracken Burns, the trauma director at Johnson City Medical Center, provided the condition updates but no further details.
The specific circumstances of the crash, how Benfield's vehicle came to strike the group, his speed, his direction of travel, remain undisclosed. Whether he drifted, crossed a center line, or simply failed to see 11 riders on a public highway has not been publicly explained. Those answers will matter enormously, both in court and to the families left behind.
Tennessee has seen its share of fatal incidents under investigation in recent months, including a case in which Tennessee National Guard members fatally shot an armed man during a Memphis pursuit. In each case, the public has a right to know what happened and why.
Milligan University President Stephen Waers urged the campus community to rally around those affected.
"We need to help our brothers and sisters bear burdens that are too great for any one person to carry alone."
USA Cycling, the sport's national governing body, issued its own statement on Instagram: "We are deeply saddened to learn of this morning's tragic crash involving the Milligan University Cycling team. Our hearts go out to the two student-athletes whose lives were taken far too soon, Haylan Engdahl and Brayden Rogers, as well as to the riders who were injured."
Engdahl and Rogers were not weekend hobbyists. They were competitive collegiate athletes training on a public road in broad daylight, doing exactly what athletes at their level do every morning across the country. Finney made that point himself. And yet a driver's alleged recklessness turned a routine ride into a fatal event of the kind that shocks communities precisely because it happens in a place no one expects danger.
The unanswered questions are significant. Was Benfield impaired? Was he distracted? Was he simply not paying attention on a road where cyclists had every legal right to be? Finney's refusal to address the impairment question publicly suggests the investigation is not finished, and that the charges already filed may not be the last.
Two young men left for a training ride Wednesday morning and never came back. Four of their teammates are fighting for their lives. The driver who allegedly caused all of it sits in a county jail facing seven felony charges, with more possibly on the way. Accountability starts with the charges. It does not end there.
