Officer in Clinton motorcade killed in accident

DALLAS (Reuters) - A Dallas motorcycle police officer in Hillary Clinton's motorcade was killed in a road accident on Friday while escorting the Democratic presidential contender to a rally ahead of the March 4 Texas primary.

"I have just learned of the death of a Dallas police officer in a devastating accident that occurred as the motorcycle officers were leading our cars to this site," Clinton, a New York senator, told reporters.

Dallas police identified the officer as Senior Corporal Victor Lozada-Tirado, a father of two boys and two girls who had been on the force since December 1988. A police statement said Lozada-Tirado struck a curb, lost control of his motorcycle and went down at 9:15 a.m.

Reporters in a bus following Clinton's car saw the officer shortly after the accident, lying in a pool of blood on the highway some distance from a crashed motorbike. It was not clear what caused the accident on a viaduct in central Dallas.

"We are just heartsick over this loss of life in the line of duty," Clinton said.

Clinton, who is vying with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, said she expressed her deepest condolences to the family and police department.

Clinton made only a brief appearance at a rally she had planned in nearby Fort Worth, cutting it short to visit the dead officer's family before boarding a flight to Ohio, which also holds its primary on March. 4.

(Reporting by Claudia Parsons, editing by Stuart Grudgings)