Motor officer injured in Wilson Street crash...

Motor officer injured in Wilson Street crash

A Costa Mesa Police officer was injured when his motorcycle

collided with a car on Wilson Street Friday evening.

Officer Jose Torres, 39, suffered contusions to the chest in the

accident and was taken to Western Medical Center, Officer John

Elliott said. He was conscious and talking after the accident,

Elliott said.

Torres was driving west on Wilson Street, just past Fairview Road,

at about 5:30 p.m. when a white Volkswagen Golf turned left in front

of him, Elliott said. Torres attempted to avoid the accident but the

car struck the left side of his Kawasaki motorcycle.

The California Highway Patrol will be investigating the accident

as an impartial agency, because it involved a service vehicle, CHP

Officer Scott Moorhouse said. The car’s driver, a Santa Ana man whose

name was not released, has a clean driving record and was not

immediately charged, Moorhouse said.

CHP investigators will decide whether or not to press charges

against the driver.

Costa Mesa motor officers have had a bad run of luck lately.

Officer Shawn Leffingwell lost his balance on his motorcycle just

the night before, when a bicyclist ran into him, Lt. John FitzPatrick

said. Leffingwell was not seriously injured.

Three motorcycle officers were injured in July when a woman

fleeing police backed her car into them.

In June, an allegedly drunken driver on a motorcycle struck

Officer Dennis Dickens as he rode his motorcycle home on the San

Diego Freeway. Dickens was seriously injured and is still recovering.