PALMDALE : 2 Officers Injured in Related Accidents

Two Los Angeles police officers were involved in separate traffic accidents within hours of each other on the same stretch of desert road near Palmdale--the second as he drove to investigate the first.

The first officer, Robert Rives Jr., was riding his police motorcycle on Bouquet Canyon Road south of Elizabeth Lake Road about 4:35 p.m. Thursday when he rammed the back of a stopped car, California Highway Patrol Officer Mike Nemback said.

Rives, a 54-year-old motorcycle officer who works out of the Van Nuys Division, was in fair condition with a concussion, sprained knee and broken finger at Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills. The other driver was not injured.

But a short time later, the sergeant sent to investigate the accident was himself involved in a crash that sent him and another motorist to the hospital.

Sgt. Richard Talkington, 42, said he was blinded by the late-afternoon sun as he turned left from Elizabeth Lake Road onto Bouquet Canyon Road. He did not see the vehicle driven by Wendy Hansen, 35, of Palmdale until it slammed into the passenger side of his car.

Hansen was in fair condition with a broken shoulder at Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center. Talkington was in good condition with an injured knee at the same hospital.