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08/19/26 06:43:00
Printable Page
08/19 18:41 CDT 2 college cyclists killed and 7 injured in Tennessee car crash
2 college cyclists killed and 7 injured in Tennessee car crash
HAMPTON, Tenn. (AP) --- Two members of a university cycling team were killed
and seven others were injured Wednesday when a car collided with a group of
riders in northeastern Tennessee, state officials said.
Milligan University, a private Christian school with just over 1,200 students,
said 11 of its cyclists were out together on a morning training ride when they
were struck by a driver in Hampton, about 11 miles (18 kilometers) from the
campus in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
The county's district attorney, Steve Finney, said a 69-year-old man from North
Carolina had been arrested and faced two counts of reckless vehicular homicide
and five counts of aggravated assault by vehicle with recklessness.
Milligan sophomores Haylan Engdahl, of Winthrop Harbor, Illinois, and Brayden
Rogers, of Huntsville, Alabama, were killed in the crash, university President
Stephen Waers said. The other student-athletes were transported to the nearby
Johnson City Medical Center, he said.
"We need to help our brothers and sisters bear burdens that are too great for
any one person to carry alone," Waers said in an emotional video message shared
with the school community. He urged students to come together in prayer for
their injured peers.
As of Wednesday evening, four students were in critical condition, two others
were stable but remained in the hospital, and one student had been discharged,
said the hospital's trauma medical director, Dr. Bracken Burns.
Earlier this year, the Milligan University men's cycling team won a team time
trial national championship at the USA Cycling Collegiate Road Nationals in
Wisconsin.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol was still investigating the circumstances of the
crash, said Maj. Roy Brown. The speed limit on the section of Highway 19 where
the the crash occurred is 50 miles per hour (about 80 kilometers per hour),
officials said.
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