Tragedy on the Trail

A 63-year-old, retired law-enforcement officer broke his neck and died after an Aug. 2 bicycle accident on a Lake County portion of the West Orange Trail.

Oakland Police officers were the first to arrive at the scene, about half a mile west of the trailhead at State Road 438, just before 7 a.m. Aug. 2. They found the man, James Herbert Pierstorff, lying on his side next to his bicycle and being held up by an unknown cyclist, a police report stated. Police discovered the man’s bicycle had a blown-out tire. Officers, and then medics who arrived at the scene, gave CPR and other first aid to the man. An obituary for Pierstorff, at baldwincramation.com, said he died Aug. 3 at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

Pierstorff served as team leader for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office SWAT unit, rose through the ranks at the Altamonte Springs Police Department and discovered his passion for cycling while in charge of the department’s Bike Unit, the obituary stated. “After retirement, he continued riding 1,000 miles a week and left this world doing what he loved,” it stated. “He is survived by his loving wife Barbara, family, and friends.”