2 Milligan University Cyclists Killed in Tennessee Highway Crash

Two members of the Milligan University cycling team were killed and several others injured when a vehicle collided with the group during a training ride on a rural highway in eastern Tennessee on Wednesday morning, state officials and the school confirmed.

Milligan University President Dr. Stephen Waers said at a news conference Wednesday night that 11 cyclists were riding when the crash occurred around 8 a.m. local time. Two cyclists were killed and seven others were hospitalized, he said.

Waers identified the deceased as sophomores Haylan Engdahl and Brayden Rogers.

"This is an elite cycling team, it's not a bunch of club guys getting together to ride, they know what they're doing," Tennessee First Judicial District Attorney General Steven Finney told reporters.

Officials said some of the injured cyclists were airlifted by helicopter to Johnson City Medical Center. Dr. Bracken Burns, the hospital's trauma medical director, said of the seven patients received, four were in critical condition, two were stable, and one was evaluated and released.

Milligan University, a small Christian college in Elizabethton, Tennessee, said the crash occurred in the community of Hampton, about 10 miles east of campus. The Tennessee Highway Patrol said the collision happened on a rural highway; a highway patrol source told CBS News it occurred in a mountainous area.

"Our troopers are now trying to determine exactly what happened," Tennessee Highway Patrol Maj. Roy Brown said.

Finney said the suspected driver, 69-year-old John Benfield of Newland, North Carolina, was arrested 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.