HOUSTON -- A Houston police officer on a motorcycle escorting an oversized 18-wheeler was injured in an accident on a southwest Houston freeway Thursday morning.

Investigators said Houston Police Department Officer Ed Farris was one of two solo officers escorting the oversized truck as it traveled on Highway 59, the Southwest Freeway, at about 6:30 a.m.

As the truck and officers moved into the right lane as they approached the Westpark Drive exit and traffic slowed to about 10 mph, a motorist entering the highway wedged between the officer and the truck, which set off a chain-reaction collision.

Accident investigators said the big rig struck the car, causing the car to spin. That is when the car clipped the motorcycle, sending the bike on its side and the officer into the middle of a busy freeway.

The driver of the car was ticketed for changing lanes when unsafe. He was not injured.

"It appears he just made an honest mistake. He thought he had enough clearance to change lanes, not realizing that he needs to let an 18-wheeler have a little bit more stopping distance," HPD Officer Arthur Taylor III told KPRC Local 2.

The officer was transported as a precaution to Memorial Hermann Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He had been released from the hospital by 11 a.m.