Buena Park : Police Officer Hurt in Collision During Chase

A Buena Park traffic officer broke his jaw and pelvis when his motorcycle collided with a car while he apparently was chasing a speeding motorist, authorities said Monday.

Officer Greg Steward, 36, was in stable condition Monday at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier, Buena Park Police Sgt. Robert Mills said. Mills, Steward’s boss in the Police Department’s traffic and safety division, said he had not yet talked with the officer.

Steward, a 15-year veteran of the department, crashed into a Mercedes-Benz driven by James Nole, 54, of Irvine at the intersection of Beach Boulevard and Los Coyotes Drive on Sunday night, Mills said. Nole was treated at La Mirada Hospital for face cuts and released, he said.

“The motorcycle was just totaled,” Mills said of Steward’s vehicle. “He’s lucky to be alive. His pelvis is actually split open, and he’s supposed to have an operation Wednesday to pin it back together using wires or plates.”

Mills said Steward was using radar to check for speeders Sunday on Beach Boulevard, but that the Mercedes was not the car Steward was chasing. That car got away after Steward collided with Nole’s, Mills said.

Details about the accident, such as the speed Steward and Nole were traveling and how they came to collide, were not being released by the Police Department because the California Highway Patrol is investigating the crash, Mills said.

CHP spokesman Matt Clark said he had no press release on the crash because it is still under investigation.