A routine training ride turned into a nightmare in Tennessee on Wednesday morning. Two Milligan University cyclists were killed and seven others injured after a vehicle struck the team during a ride in Carter County.
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The students who lost their lives were sophomores Haylan Engdahl and Brayden Rogers, Milligan University President Stephen Waers confirmed. Four of the seven injured cyclists remained in critical condition, while the others were either stable or had been released from the hospital.
Coming to when and how this tragic moment unfolded, the team had 11 students on the training ride when the crash happened around 9 a.m. on Highway 19 near Simerly Creek Road.
Emergency crews rushed to the scene, with two of the injured students transported to Johnson City Medical Center by helicopter. The aftermath was devastating. Sam Rogers, who passed the crash scene, recalled seeing emergency vehicles, badly damaged bicycles, and injured riders receiving treatment. “The bicycles were completely destroyed,” he said.
The driver, 69-year-old John Benfield of Newland, North Carolina, was taken into custody. Carter County District Attorney General Steven Finney said Benfield faces two counts of vehicular homicide by recklessness and five counts of aggravated assault by vehicle by recklessness. Additional charges could follow as the investigation continues.
For now, authorities are deliberately holding back from drawing conclusions about what happened.
“We know the families and Milligan University deeply want answers, and we want to provide those answers,” Tennessee Highway Patrol Major Roy Brown said. “But it’s our responsibility to ensure that we conduct a fair investigation thoroughly.”
The road where the crash occurred has a 50 mph speed limit. Investigators are examining the circumstances surrounding the collision and speaking with witnesses before determining exactly how the incident unfolded.
The tragedy has struck particularly hard because this was no casual group of riders. Finney described Milligan’s cyclists as an elite team, emphasizing that they were experienced athletes riding together in a peloton.
Earlier this year, the university’s men’s cycling team had celebrated a major success by winning the team time trial national championship at the USA Cycling Collegiate Road Nationals in Wisconsin.
Now, that competitive community is facing a loss it could never have anticipated.
Milligan University said it was “profoundly shocked and saddened” by the tragedy. On campus, pastoral and counseling resources have been made available as students and staff try to process what happened.
“There are no words to adequately describe this level of loss,” the university said. But unfortunately, this is not the first in this month that we have seen a tragic accident that has rocked the cycling world…
Cycling’s growing safety concerns
The Tennessee tragedy comes at a time when rider safety has again been thrust into the spotlight.
Only days earlier, 19-year-old Welsh cyclist Finlay Tarling died after a collision during Stage 8 of the Volta a Portugal. Tarling, who rode for the NSN Development Team, was involved in the crash on the 166.8-kilometer route between Melgaço and Fafe.
His death prompted an emotional response from the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés, with riders’ union president Adam Hansen calling for greater attention to cyclist protection.
“We are speechless and filled with anger after the news of Finlay Tarling’s death at the Tour of Portugal,” the riders’ union said.
One of the biggest concerns is the difficulty of securing long stretches of road. Even during professional races, riders can become separated from the main group, creating complicated situations involving ordinary traffic.
“When the breakaway or the main group goes past, sometimes the drivers from the general public think that’s the whole race,” Hansen explained.
That challenge extends beyond professional racing. Training rides, like the one Milligan’s team was undertaking, take place on roads where cyclists and motorists must share space.
For Tarling’s family and teammates, the investigation into his death cannot undo what happened. The same is now true for the Milligan community, which is mourning two young athletes while seven more recover from their injuries.
The circumstances of the Tennessee crash remain under investigation, and authorities have stressed that some details could change as evidence is examined.
But one thing is already certain: a morning that began as another training session has left a university community grieving and raised once again the difficult question of how much protection cyclists have when they take to the road.