KINGSFORD, Mich. (AP) – A Michigan Army veteran who turned his life around with a bike shop has died in a crash while delivering free bikes to children in Florida affected by Hurricane Ian, his family
Steven Pringle, 57, was killed in Punta Gorda, Fla., on Nov. 23, weeks after a profile in the Detroit Free Press described how his passion for fixing bikes had touched many people in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
“One lady said, ‘We couldn’t afford a bike, and your dad gave my son a bike.’ Free Press last week.
Someone placed a bicycle, painted white, at the Punta Gorda crash scene, a common memorial to victims of fatal crashes. There is a message in the frame: “May the legend continue.”
Pringle was driving a pickup truck with a bicycle trailer when he drove through an intersection that did not have a stop sign because of the hurricane, the Free Press reported.
Pringle earlier this year told the newspaper he had been desperate, eating poorly and living in a caravan when he woke up while praying the Catholic rosary. It eventually became Build a Bicycle — Bicycle Therapy, a shop in Kingsford where he fixed bicycles, sold new ones and gave many away.
“At first I’ve had people say, ‘You give too much,'” Pringle said. “But the more we give, the more will come back at the end of the day. I don’t need money. What am I going to do with it, pick it up and keep it?”
