Governor, Son Hurt in Accident

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his 12-year-old son were slightly injured Sunday afternoon when their motorcycle collided with a car near the family’s home in Brentwood, his office said.

The low-speed collision occurred about 3:15 p.m. as Schwarzenegger was riding his Harley-Davidson with his son, Patrick, in the motorcycle’s sidecar, according to Margita Thompson, the governor’s press secretary.

As the pair were riding north on Mandeville Canyon Road, a car backed out of a driveway in the 2100 block and the governor was unable to avoid striking it, according to Thompson and a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, which investigated the accident.

With a security detail from the California Highway Patrol, Schwarzenegger and his son were taken to St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. Both were released after being treated for minor cuts and bruises, Thompson said. She added that the governor received 15 stitches in his lip.

The governor and Patrick, the older of his two sons, were wearing helmets at the time of the accident, Thompson said.

The driver of the car, she added, was not injured. Authorities would not release the driver’s name. The California Highway Patrol referred calls about the accident to the LAPD.

LAPD Officer Jason Lee said no one was cited.

“It was an unfortunate accident,” he said.

“Thank God the governor and his son are OK.”

The motorcycle accident was at least the second for Schwarzenegger in recent years.

In a 2003 article for the bodybuilding magazine Flex, Schwarzenegger recalled how a December 2001 accident resulted in six broken ribs and prevented him from training for three months before filming of the futuristic action movie “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.”

“It was a Sunday afternoon and I was riding through Santa Monica on my Harley, when the car in front of me suddenly braked,” Schwarzenegger told the magazine. “My front wheel hit the rear fender of the car and I ended up sliding along the road sideways.

“I was taken to the ER at St. John’s Hospital, and they told me I had broken six ribs and that I couldn’t work out for three months, until early March,” Schwarzenegger said. “In fact, I started training again in late February, which was only six or seven weeks before shooting began.”

The latest accident was not expected to interfere with any of the governor’s scheduled appointments today, according to Thompson.

“He’s totally fine,” she said late Sunday.

Times staff writer Amanda Covarrubias and research librarian Penny Love contributed to this report.