President Bush spent just under 17 hours on O'ahu but his visit was marred by the crash of a Honolulu Police Department motorcycle officer escorting his motorcade Monday night, the beating of a White House aide outside a Waikiki night club and another crash yesterday morning involving three more HPD motorcycle officers as they led the presidential motorcade.

Officer Steve Favella, 30, was taken to The Queen's Medical Center with internal injuries and bleeding after he and two other officers crashed near a bend along Hickam Air Force Base's O'Malley Boulevard at 7:10 a.m. yesterday.

Favella's status was changed from serious to critical condition by yesterday afternoon.

The two other motorcycle officers were taken to Queen's in serious condition and later released.

Gregg Pitts, the 25-year-old acting director of the White House Travel Office who was in Bush's entourage, also remained in the hospital yesterday after he was robbed and beaten by three male attackers at about 2 a.m. as he walked through the International Marketplace near the Bobby G's dance club.

Pitts could not describe his attackers to police but said they knocked him down and kicked and punched him, said HPD spokesman Capt. Frank Fujii.

They stole Pitts's wallet and identification and left him bleeding with cuts and scrapes on his face and a broken nose.

Pitts was expected to be released from the unidentified hospital today, according to a White House press pool report of Bush's activities yesterday on O'ahu.

Fujii declined to identify the victim or even describe his position, but discussed the attack at a news conference yesterday.

"This is going to go national," Fujii said. "Unfortunately, it happened to somebody who may be of interest to people across the country. People need to understand that Hawai'i is still a very safe location. ... But we're still a big city with some large city crimes."

Marsha Weinert, Hawai'i's tourism liaison, said police do a good job of keeping visitors safe. Officials said a very small percentage of the state's more than 7 million people expected to visit the Islands this year will be victims of crimes.

"It's concerning to us when any visitor becomes a victim in any of the islands," she said.

No witnesses have come forward, Fujii said, and detectives are asking for help from anyone with information.

Fujii could not describe what kind of identification was taken.

MOTORCYCLE CRASHES

Bush and first lady Laura Bush touched down at Hickam at 5:25 p.m. Monday following a 12-hour flight from Indonesia, on their way back to Washington, D.C.

Two hours later, an unidentified HPD motorcycle officer escorting Bush's motorcade at Pearl Harbor's North Road crashed while making a slow speed U-turn on loose gravel near the Makalapa Gate, Fujii said.

The officer suffered an injured wrist and was off work yesterday, Fujii said. His motorcycle was undamaged and the officer may have driven himself to the hospital, Fujii said.

At 7:10 a.m. yesterday, a motorcycle officer at the head of Bush's motorcade lost control on "what we believe is a very slippery spot in the road" then struck a curb on O'Malley Boulevard, about 1/10th of a mile east of Apollo Road at Hickam, Fujii said.

Two other motorcycle officers tried to avoid the crash, but also lost control, he said.

Fujii described the road's surface as "not typical asphalt that's out there on the public roadways."

A pole and a tree were struck in the crashes. But Fujii said it was unclear whether they were hit by the officers or their motorcycles.

City paramedics took Favella to Queen's, where he underwent surgery to control internal bleeding. Favella has been with the HPD for eight years.

City paramedics also transported a 36-year-old male officer to Queen's in serious condition, said Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city's Emergency Medical Services division. A 31-year-old male officer was taken to Queen's in serious condition by Hickam paramedics, he said.

PRESIDENT 'CONCERNED'

HPD investigators will try to figure out what caused the crash, Fujii said, but yesterday it was still unclear which officer crashed first and how fast they were traveling.

"Right now it's very fluid," Fujii said hours later. "The guys had a task to complete, which is making sure that the president got off safely."

The presidential motorcade passed the scene of the crash and Bush later asked the major in charge of the HPD's Specialized Services Division about the officers' conditions, Fujii said.

Bush "probably drove by it," Fujii said. "The president was very concerned."

The White House press pool report, written by Joseph Curl of the Washington Times, said, "on the way to breakfast, racing through Hickam Air Force Base in the motorcade, three motorcycle officers crashed on the rain-slick road, with one flying into a light pole. As your pool van passed, two were moving, one was not. A single boot lay in the center of the road. The bikes had ripped across the grass median, one nearly upside down. It was a bad crash. White House medical personnel, including nurse Cindy Wright, immediately went to the aid of the injured. One White House staffer later said at least one suffered broken bones, and another was later said to be in serious condition with a neck injury."

Two U.S. Secret Service agents and a vehicle outfitted with medical equipment immediately came to the aid of the injured officers, said Al Joaquin, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Honolulu office.

"They may not be our agents but they are part of our protective package and part of our law enforcement family," Joaquin said.

Presidential motorcade details train for incidents like yesterday's, Joaquin said, and agents have to immediately decide whether the event is part of a potential assault on the president or merely a traffic accident.

HPD motorcycle officers undergo four weeks of classroom and practical training to join the motorcycle unit, Fujii said, and then practice traveling in parades and escorting dignitaries such as Bush.

DYING IN LINE OF DUTY

Since 1923, 11 HPD motorcycle officers have been killed in the line of duty — four in the past two decades, Fujii said.

The last fatality occurred in 2003, when a car traveling in the opposite direction on Farrington Highway collided with another car, sending it across a grass median and into the path of three HPD motorcycle officers. Officer Ryan Goto, 35, was killed.

Goto had been injured in a 1999 accident when a car struck his motorcycle as he checked on a stalled vehicle.

Just before Goto's funeral, one of the Honolulu police motorcycles escorting the procession crashed into a car on Punchbowl Street, injuring the officer and destroying the motorcycle.

Among HPD officers — but particularly among motorcycle officers — it's considered an honor to be chosen for a presidential detail, Fujii said.

"Any one of us," Fujii said, "would be very proud to serve in any part of the protection of our president."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.