After son’s tragic death, Knoxville family hopes ‘Ben Kredich Act’ will save lives

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. ( WATE ) — The “Ben Kredich Act” passed unanimously in both chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly and is now headed to Governor Bill Lee ‘s desk to be signed into law.

The bill aims to address opioid related DUI’s and prevent those who are administered an opioid antagonist like Narcan from getting behind the wheel.

Ben Kredich was 24 years old when he was hit and killed while walking along Kingston Pike in August 2023. The driver accused of veering off the road and hitting Kredich, Shannon Walker, was reportedly treated for an overdose with Narcan just hours before the crash happened.

Kredich was the son of University of Tennessee Swim and Dive Director Matt Kredich. He and his wife Kim worked with State Senator Becky Duncan Massey to develop the bill.

“That would save the lives of people who are overdosed, hopefully save their lives and help them and certainly lower the chance of killing an innocent person like Ben,” Matt Kredich said.

In the weeks following their son’s death, the Kredich family found themselves asking questions about how opioid antagonists like Narcan work.

“I think we discovered it’s not widely understood that Narcan, or a similar drug, essentially masks the effect of an opioid. [It] saves lives, which is wonderful, but it wears off after a time and it wears off very often before the drug itself wears off,” Kredich said.

The Ben Kredich Act would establish evidence of a person’s substance usage within 24 hours of an incident and create a presumption that the defendant’s ability to drive was sufficiently impaired by the controlled substance that caused the overdose.

“What we’re trying to tell people is even though you get an opioid antagonist, or commonly known now as Narcan, that doesn’t take the drugs out of your system, it just revives you, so you would still be driving impaired afterwards,” Senator Massey said.

It would also allow first responders who administer an opioid antagonist to someone, to provide information on the risks associated with driving in the next 24 hours.

Matt Kredich said seeing change come out of their loss is encouraging.

“It’s still just heart-wrenching and devastating on a daily basis to know that he’s gone. But to have a piece of legislation to come out of this that could potentially save lives is also really gratifying. I think, selfishly, I’m really happy that his name is on there because that continues his legacy and I’m really appreciative of that,” he said.

Shannon Walker, the suspect in Kredich’s death, was indicted by a grand jury on April 17 . He was indicted on 12 counts of charges including vehicular homicide and driving under the influence.

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