Tragic News: Matt Kredich's son killed by an impaired driver near campus today

[turbovol]

Devastating news:

Tennessee Swimming and Diving issued a statement Tuesday afternoon that Ben Kredich, the 24-year-old son of Tennessee Director of Swimming & Diving Matt Kredich, was struck and killed by an impaired driver on Monday. According to the release, Kredich was walking near Tennessee’s campus when he was struck by an impaired motorist.


The incident occurred just after 4 p.m. on Monday evening. According to a report from a local Knoxville news outlet, the driver was traveling east on Kingston Pike near Thimbleberry Road when the car ran off the road onto the sidewalk and struck Kredich. The car then struck a pole before continuing to go eastbound into the westbound lanes of Kingston Pike. Kredich was pronounced dead at the scene.


The driver, 44-year-old Tennessee native Shannon Walker, has been charged with vehicular homicide and DUI, along with other charges. The investigation is ongoing. According to the WATE report, officers searched Walker’s car and found various narcotics, including what is suspected to be heroin.


The press release put out by Tennessee Swimming and Diving included quotes from the program, as well as Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Danny White. Tennessee Swimming and Diving’s statement said in part “We offer our prayers, support and presence to lift up the Kredich family amidst our collective sorrow and grief.”


Here is full statement from Tennessee Swimming & Diving:

“Our Tennessee swimming & diving family is heartbroken following the tragic loss of Matt and Kim’s son, Ben. We offer our prayers, support and presence to lift up the Kredich family amidst our collective sorrow and grief. We know the entire University of Tennessee community joins us in mourning and memorializing a beautiful soul who touched many, many lives and will never be forgotten.” – Statement from Tennessee Swimming & Diving​

“Our hearts ache as an athletics department and are filled with sorrow in regards to the tragic and senseless death of Ben Kredich,” White began his statement. “May God rest Ben’s beautiful soul.”


University of Virginia associate head coach Tyler Fenwick posted lengthy message on Instagram detailing his memories of Ben Kredich and expressing his sorrow for the Kredich family. Fenwick has known the Kredich family for 16 years, dating back to when he coached at Tennessee from 2007-2009.

 

[Vol in LA]

Sad my heart aches for this family my mind cannot even comprehend it.
Praying for the family.

 

[Gilmore]

Such a heartbreaking tragedy. What a special young man. Condolences to Ben’s family.

 

[GoVols15]

Prayers for the family! I pray that they receive a peace that only You can give them in this terrible time. Father wrap your arms around them and give them comfort. In Jesus name, Amen.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

Terrible.

 

[gule]

drugs kill....

 

[JohnWardForever]

Always the wrong person gets killed. When we as a society stop pandering to the insanity, we will see a better world. The PERP.

 

[turbovol]

I'm trying to understand why there's not been a word on this, that I've seen, on the Knox News website. Maybe I've missed it.

 

[glv98]

I'm trying to understand why there's not been a word on this, that I've seen, on the Knox News website. Maybe I've missed it.

Unbelievable how bad the quality of corporate McNews is today. I had to go to local TV web news site to find the details after hearing this on Twitter yesterday. Thought Knox News might just be lagging. But today, again nothing.

With the exception of UT Sports News, the Knox News/News Sentinel is a useless rag. Even more heartbreaking, my beloved Nashville Tennessean is just as bad.

 

[LasVegasBill23]

So sad here Thoughts and prayers with the family

 

[jp1]

I'm trying to understand why there's not been a word on this, that I've seen, on the Knox News website. Maybe I've missed it.

It's the world we live in. Calling a spade a spade is tough. DUI, opiates, and Narcan. All tough subjects.

 

[madtownvol]

It's the world we live in. Calling a spade a spade is tough. DUI, opiates, and Narcan. All tough subjects.

I just googled on Ben Kredich and there are numerous stories about the accident and the driver being on Narcan at the time. Why are folks acting like there is some conspiracy of silence around this tragedy?

 

[glv98]

I just googled on Ben Kredich and there are numerous stories about the accident and the driver being on Narcan at the time. Why are folks acting like there is some conspiracy of silence around this tragedy?

The conversation was specifically about why there was nothing on Knox News site nor the News Sentinel until today when the NS ran a feature story on it. I don't think it's any kind of silence conspiracy, it's another sad chapter in the end of local news. NS is owned by USA Today and are a McPaper, running canned features sent down from the franchise owners. Very little actual Knoxville news except UT sports.

 

[turbovol]

The conversation was specifically about why there was nothing on Knox News site nor the News Sentinel until today when the NS ran a feature story on it. I don't think it's any kind of silence conspiracy, it's another sad chapter in the end of local news. NS is owned by USA Today and are a McPaper, running canned features sent down from the franchise owners. Very little actual Knoxville news except UT sports.

I looked in various sections of KnoxNews.com for two or three days and NEVER saw a news story on the incident. They finally, on day 3 or 4, do a feature story on the young man--who seemed quite admirable in a lot of ways.

My hometown paper is the same. It is now owned by some cheap Midwest company called Lee Enterprises, which I think owns a lot of newspapers but invests little or no money in them. All but a handful of reporters/editors of a once well-staffed paper have been let go over over a period of years and nowadays the paper has a bare-bones staff and basically does no enterprise reporting at all. It's all local/state sports, weather and calendar stuff and not much more.

 

[Volfan1000]

Always the wrong person gets killed. When we as a society stop pandering to the insanity, we will see a better world. The PERP.

Condolences to the Kredich family.

 

[DeerPark12]

The conversation was specifically about why there was nothing on Knox News site nor the News Sentinel until today when the NS ran a feature story on it. I don't think it's any kind of silence conspiracy, it's another sad chapter in the end of local news. NS is owned by USA Today and are a McPaper, running canned features sent down from the franchise owners. Very little actual Knoxville news except UT sports.

There was a story on the accident the day it happened, and another one with additional details the following day. At that point, neither the victim nor the suspect had been named, which is why it didn’t appear in your search. But there was a story on the accident having shut down an Kingston Pike in both directions later that day.

 

[DeerPark12]

It's the world we live in. Calling a spade a spade is tough. DUI, opiates, and Narcan. All tough subjects.

Who has trouble calling a spade a spade? Every story I’ve seen on this has mentioned that the driver had been treated for a drug overdose earlier in the day. The conversation we need to have is why there isn’t a law in Tennessee that requires those being treated for a drug overdose to be held for treatment for at least 24 hours, as there is in some states.

Every life is worth saving, which is why Narcan is an important thing to have in the hands of paramedics and first responders. But if we are going to administer that drug to save a life, we need to be willing to provide the follow up treatment, both immediately and long-term, to make sure that that life is actually saved and not just prolonged.

 

[jp1]

Who has trouble calling a spade a spade? Every story I’ve seen on this has mentioned that the driver had been treated for a drug overdose earlier in the day. The conversation we need to have is why there isn’t a law in Tennessee that requires those being treated for a drug overdose to be held for treatment for at least 24 hours, as there is in some states.

Every life is worth saving, which is why Narcan is an important thing to have in the hands of paramedics and first responders. But if we are going to administer that drug to save a life, we need to be willing to provide the follow up treatment, both immediately and long-term, to make sure that that life is actually saved and not just prolonged.

You touched on a few of the issues. I dont disagree with the claims you make, but there is a whole heck of a lot of hurdles in the process. While you are correct in the "story" being mentioned, you don't see those same articles discussing the current problems we have. Who pays for the immediate and long-term treatment?

 

[DeerPark12]

You touched on a few of the issues. I dont disagree with the claims you make, but there is a whole heck of a lot of hurdles in the process. While you are correct in the "story" being mentioned, you don't see those same articles discussing the current problems we have. Who pays for the immediate and long-term treatment?

Worrying about who pays for immediate and long-term treatment as your first reaction to the problem IS the problem.

As taxpayers, it would have been a lot cheaper for us to pay for a two day inpatient stay and inpatient or outpatient mental health/drug abuse treatment than it will to house this man in the state penitentiary every day for the rest of his life. Study after study shows that public health and treatment initiatives cost significantly less than what it would cost to house people in prisons either off and on or consecutively for the rest of their lives. Yet, we choose to wait until they commit crime and incarcerate instead of treat, costing us all a lot more.

Of course, it would’ve cost nothing to let the man overdose and die. But it seems pretty callous to just assign someone’s life no value because their circumstances led them to become a drug abuser. Maybe it’s their fault, maybe it’s a mental health issue, maybe it’s a disorder. But assigning their life zero value simply because they have fallen into drugs is a pretty despair-ridden way to look at the world, IMO.

 

[madtownvol]

Worrying about who pays for immediate and long-term treatment as your first reaction to the problem IS the problem.

As taxpayers, it would have been a lot cheaper for us to pay for a two day inpatient stay and inpatient or outpatient mental health/drug abuse treatment than it will to house this man in the state penitentiary every day for the rest of his life. Study after study shows that public health and treatment initiatives cost significantly less than what it would cost to house people in prisons either off and on or consecutively for the rest of their lives. Yet, we choose to wait until they commit crime and incarcerate instead of treat, costing us all a lot more.

Of course, it would’ve cost nothing to let the man overdose and die. But it seems pretty callous to just assign someone’s life no value because their circumstances led them to become a drug abuser. Maybe it’s their fault, maybe it’s a mental health issue, maybe it’s a disorder. But assigning their life zero value simply because they have fallen into drugs is a pretty despair-ridden way to look at the world, IMO.

I am trying to figure out what people are implying about opiates and treatment. Our country has a major opioid problem that is a fact.

So, are these vague condemnations about no one calling a spade a spade, suggesting that we, as a society, should not provide help for those who are addicted?

By the way, these addictions are not a "moral failing" or a symptom of a "woke society" but a problem that traces to a standard cause-- $. As explained by Dr. Howard Koh of Harvard's School of Public health:

One major conclusion is that the crisis represents a multi-system failure of regulation. OxyContin approval is one example—Purdue Pharma was later shown to have presented a fraudulent description of the drug as less addictive than other opioids. The profit motive of the pharmaceutical industry remains ever present.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Post-approval, it’s usually left up to industry—not regulators—to educate and advise prescribers on how to evaluate and mitigate risk. Donations from opioid manufacturers to politicians continue to influence policy decisions. In addition, a revolving door of officials leaving government regulatory agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency regularly join the pharmaceutical industry with little to no “cooling off” periods. The report details these and other glaring examples.

Not to be overlooked, the problem with opioids is also matched by our problem with alcohol abuse, which has a very long history even going back to the good ole days, when "men were men" blah, blah: Stats from the NHTSA:

Every day, about 37 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes — that's one person every 39 minutes. In 2021, 13,384 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths — a 14% increase from 2020. These deaths were all preventable.