Friends Remember Cyclist Killed By Alleged Drunk Driver

A former Air Force pilot is killed cycling down Highway 83 in Douglas County. He was rear-ended by what officials are calling a drunk driver. Friends are reminiscing about 46-year-old Michael Joyal ,who was hit by a Jeep Wrangler while riding south on Highway 83.

“When his wife called, I thought maybe she was going to say his ribs were broken. I asked her how he was, and she said he was dead,” said Tina Cline who was a close friend of Joyal.

Cline got the kind of call that all of us fear, where a loved one is killed in a terrible accident. What is worse is that troopers say the driver who hit Michael Joyal was drunk.

He was in florescent yellow, in a helmet, and paying attention to what he was doing,” said Cline. It was Michael’s wife Suzanne who made the heartbreaking call.

“He was training and it was getting dark. He didn’t realize it was going to get dark as fast as it did.He had called Suzanne and she was going to pick him up,” said Cline.

Cline says Joyal loved to exercise and stay in shape. “He would pull up his shirt to show us his 8-pack abs at 46 years old that he was all proud of,” said Cline.

He also loved to fly. He was an Air Force Academy graduate and flew in the Air Force for 20 years. “He flew Air Force cargo planes. He flew Air Force Two. He loved flying,” said Cline.

According to Cline, it was fitness that was Joyal’s true passion.”He died doing something that he loved. We all want to do that. We’re going to have to pick up the pieces and live with that loss, because he was part of our family,” said Cline.

Michael Joyal is survived by a wife and two daughters, aged 15-years-old and 13-years-old.

37-year-old Sjvorne Chapman from Peyton was arrested following the accident. She is facing charges of vehicular homicide, reckless driving, and D.U.I. According to Chapman’s criminal background, she pleaded guilty to driving while impaired in 2010.