Cyclist and artist Joel Eagan struck and killed by car on Dry Creek Road3 min read

Joel David Eagan Photo courtesy of Jay Fout

Sedona resident Joel David Eagan, 54, was struck and killed in a vehicle-versus-bicycle collision at the intersection of Thunder Mountain Road and Dry Creek Road around 6:38 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 7.

A Sedona Fire District ambulance from Station 4 and paramedics from Stations 1 and 4 responded to the call as well as Sedona police.

A helicopter was initially dispatched but later called off. When police officers arrived, Eagan was reportedly badly injured and unresponsive. Lifesaving measures were taken by officers as well as paramedics, but were unsuccessful and Eagan died at the scene.

Witnesses reported to police that the bicyclist, “who had been traveling perpendicular to the vehicle, attempted to go around the vehicle” “by accelerating and turning directly in front of the moving vehicle,” a white Lincoln Navigator SUV, which had been moving forward from the stop sign on Thunder Mountain Road onto Dry Creek Road.

The city of Sedona released the accident report and a diagram of the collision scene on Thursday, Feb. 27, some 20 days after the fatal crash.

Eagan reportedly had no lights on his bicycle and was not wearing a helmet, according to witnesses.

The road was closed by Sedona police and police volunteers, who turned around northbound traffic on Dry Creek Road at Remuda Road, except for local vehicles.

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SFD crews were cleared from the scene at 7:26 p.m.

A Nixle alert about the road closure was not issued by city of Sedona staff until 8:32 p.m. The road remained closed until the arrival of the Yavapai County Medical Examiner.

Police detectives determined there was no criminal action or impairment on the part of the vehicle driver, a 77-year-old Sedona woman, who had remained at the scene after the collision.

The driver of the Lincoln Navigator was heading southwest to the intersection, according to the police report, released on Feb. 20. After stopping at the stop sign, the driver turned left and was struck by Eagan. She exited the vehicle and called 9-1-1.

A juvenile heading westbound on a bicycle on the sidewalk spoken with police in the presence of his mother, and said he witnessed the Lincoln Navigator stop then begin to turn left, when Eagan, who was heading northbound, “accelerated from the sidewalk and into the apron of the sidewalk to cross over Thunder Mountain Road, where it [Eagan] then went left to go in front of the white Lincoln,” according to the police report.

Eagan had been a resident of Sedona for more than 24 years and was known as a local artist and a photographer who sold photos he shot in Sedona, Telluride, Colo., Maui, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. He often rode a motorized bicycle around West Sedona.

“The incident is under investigation with the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office and when that is complete, we will release the police report ASAP with the full details.”

Sedona Police Sgt. Casey Pelletier reported that on Feb. 26, he received an email from Mike Morrison with the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office stating “there is no criminal conduct involved and no civil violation committed by the automobile driver.”

Based on this, Pelletier wrote, no charges will be filed and the case will be closed as “non-criminal.”

Sedona Communications Director Lauren Browne stated in an email on Monday, Feb. 10. Browne did not provide any further details about the collision.

Christopher Fox Graham

Christopher Fox Graham is the managing editor of the Sedona Rock Rock News, The Camp Verde Journal and the Cottonwood Journal Extra. Hired by Larson Newspapers as a copy editor in 2004, he became assistant manager editor in October 2009 and managing editor in August 2013. Graham has won awards for editorials, investigative news reporting, headline writing, page design and community service from the Arizona Newspapers Association. Graham has also been a guest contributor in Editor & Publisher magazine and featured in the LA Times, New York Post and San Francisco Chronicle. He lectures on journalism, media law and the First Amendment and is a nationally recognized performance aka slam poet. In January 2025, the International Astronomical Union formally named asteroid 29722 Chrisgraham (1999 AQ23) in his honor at the behest of Lowell Observatory, citing him as "an American journalist and longtime managing editor of Sedona Red Rock News. He is a nationally-recognized slam poet who has written and performed multiple poems about Pluto and other space themes."

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