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Sarah Dallof Reporting A motorcycle accident Saturday badly injured Utah's top legal advisor.
Attorney General Mark Shurtleff was riding the motorcycle in preparation for a charity event Sunday.
Shurtleff's left leg is broken in four places, trauma serious enough to require surgery, but he was wearing a helmet and is expected to be OK.
The attorney general was testing out a Harley Davidson bike in Lindon. Shurtleff was planning to join Gov. Jon Huntsman, an expert dirt biker, Sunday for the "Fall Ride for Fallen Officers."
"On behalf of the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation, I express my sympathy to Attorney General Shurtleff. We appreciate that he was willing to join us in this event," said Ken Wallentine, director of law enforcement for the attorney general's office and an associate board member for the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial Board of Directors.
According to spokesman Paul Murphy, Shurtleff spun on loose gravel and crashed. He had to be taken by helicopter to the University of Utah hospital because traffic from the BYU football game was too heavy.
Murphy was able to speak by phone to the AG for a few minutes Saturday evening.
"His first worry is that somehow this will be a detriment to the motorcycle ride. He's given a lot personally to the charity. He wants to make sure the ride [Sunday] is a big success because it means a lot to the police officers and it means a lot to him," Murphy said.
The ride hopes to raise money for the Fallen Officers Memorial, a $1.3 million monument to law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. It will be built near flags representing a men and women dedicated to protecting safety in Utah.
The ride begins at 10 a.m. Sunday at Thanksgiving Point.
Shurtleff's spokesman says he obviously won't be attend the ride, but he'll be there in spirit.
(The Associated Press contributed to this article.)
