Greg Toppo

USATODAY

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck was recovering Sunday after fracturing his pelvis in an off-road dirt bike accident, city police said.

Beck was riding with friends in the Tehachapi Mountains north of Los Angeles on Saturday when he fell on a rocky trail, The Associated Press reported.

An avid off-road motorcycle rider, Beck was able to ride back to his truck and was treated at a local hospital after driving home.

In a statement, police said Beck may have surgery on Monday and was expected to return to the office within a week.

Beck said he was “in constant contact” with Los Angeles Police Department command staff and would be working while he recuperated, CBS Los Angeles reported.

Beck, 63, has competed in various forms of off-road racing for more than 40 years, the Los Angeles Times reported. He competes in local motocross events regularly, according to his online LAPD biography. He broke his collarbone in a motocross accident in 2012, the Times reported, the third time he’d done so, according to Beck.

"Broken collarbones are the occasional price you pay for racing motocross," he wrote in an email to the Times in 2012.

Beck tweeted on Sunday to thank well-wishers for their “outpouring of concern and support,” he said. “A terrible accident happened while doing something that I love very much.”

Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo