A Honolulu Police Department motorcycle officer who died Sunday after a crash last week while escorting President Bush's motorcade obeyed proper protocol, the U.S. Secret Service said yesterday.

"I have no reason to doubt they were following normal procedures," said Albert Joaquin, special agent-in-charge for the U.S. Secret Service office in Honolulu. "It's an accident. That's as best as I can explain it."

Joaquin said the Secret Service did not open a formal investigation into the wreck because it was deemed an accident.

The Honolulu Police Department traffic division is investigating the accident that happened last Tuesday. The department declined comment yesterday, citing a pending investigation.

Officer Steve Favela, 30, died of "complications from blunt force injuries" sustained in the crash, according to preliminary results of an autopsy performed yesterday at the office of the city medical examiner. He had been an HPD officer for eight years and a motorcycle officer for two years.

Working through contacts within the department, the president and first lady Laura Bush called Favela's widow, Barbara, to express their condolences yesterday, police said. Both the president and his wife spoke to her.

Joaquin said the purpose of using officers in the motorcade is to allow the president's vehicle to move at a proper clip through areas where it might be vulnerable. He said local police departments are best at navigating the presidential motorcade through unfamiliar streets.

"The whole purpose of these bikes is to allow the motorcade to travel at a reasonable rate of speed," he said.

Services for Favela, who left behind his wife and four young children, are pending. Barbara Favela, a nurse at The Queen's Medical Center, is on maternity leave with the couple's 3-month-old baby.

A White House press officer did not immediately return a message asking whether Bush would send a representative to Favela's funeral.

Favela, riding a BMW motorcycle, was injured while escorting the motorcade at Hickam Air Force Base on a rain-slicked road. He was one of three motorcycle officers who crashed near a bend along O'Malley Boulevard as the motorcade left Hickam.

The other two officers were treated at a hospital and released.

Favela was taken to the hospital with internal injuries, and doctors operated on him to control the bleeding. His massive loss of blood spurred his doctors and friends in the community to call for blood donations.

Favela is the 12th HPD motorcycle officer to be killed in the line of duty since 1923.

Favela was one of 75 recruits who made up the department's 129th recruit class. He entered the department at age 21.

Favela, of 'Ewa Beach, worked as a nursing assistant before joining the department and told The Advertiser at the time that he joined HPD because "I just got tired of cleaning bed pans."

Because Favela died while protecting the president, he is covered by a federal government insurance policy that pays between $100,000 to $200,000 to survivors, police said.

Also, the Police Department's insurance policy pays up to $150,000, and the State of Hawai'i Organization of Police Officers pays up to $100,000 to the families of officers who are killed in the line of duty, police said.

Details of a fund to be set up for the family are pending, police said.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.