Police officer injured in motorcycle accident

Robert Blechl

GLENDALE -- A Burbank motorcycle officer was recovering from a broken

wrist Friday following a traffic accident that occurred minutes after he

left the site of a MetroLink train crash, police said.

Dennis Offerman was among four motorcycle officers returning to

Burbank on San Fernando Boulevard when a white 1990 Toyota Corolla

traveling south on Sonora Avenue ran a red light, police said. The car

did not hit Offerman but the officer was forced to lay down his bike in

the street, police said.

Offerman was taken to Providence St. Joseph Medical Center where he

was treated for a broken left wrist and cuts to his legs and arms.

Burbank Police Sgt. Rick Madrid said Offerman was released from the

hospital after a few hours.

“He’s fine,” Madrid said. “He’s up walking around and talking.”

The driver of the Toyota, Glendale resident Carl Albano, has not been

charged with any crime, police said. An investigation is continuing.

Madrid said the four officers were riding in pairs when Albano ran the

red light at 10:21 a.m.

“The first two officers saw the car and split left and right,” Madrid

said. “The second pair hit their brakes, but (Offerman) went down and

skidded to a stop in the middle of the intersection.”

Madrid said the car never struck the motorcycle, which came to rest on

its right side in the center of the intersection.

Madrid said the motorcycle’s crash bars, which fan out about 1 1/2

feet on either side of the front wheel, kept Offerman from being

seriously injured.

“These crash bars are designed to keep the cycle up,” Madrid said.

“They did what they were designed to do. If he’d have gone completely

down, he would have scraped his whole leg.”