Tiger Woods did not appear to be alert in the moments before his devastating crash – and may have fallen asleep behind the wheel of the luxury SUV he was driving, according to a report citing forensic experts.
The 45-year-old connection legend was driving a Genesis GV80 alone in 2021, when he drove over the median on Hawthorne Boulevard in Rancho Palos Verdes, got off the road and hit a tree – causing the car to overturn.
Woods broke several bones in his lower right leg, indicating that he applied the brake at the time of the impact, experts told USA Today, adding that evidence indicates that he braked late in the collision sequence.
“For me, this is like a classic case of falling asleep at the wheel, because the road curves and his vehicle goes straight,” Jonathan Cherney, a consultant who serves as an expert witness in the case, told the news.
The former police detective personally examined the scene of the accident.
“It’s a drive off the road, almost as if he was unconscious, suffering from a medical episode or he was asleep and didn’t wake up until he got off the road and that’s where the braking device came in,” Cherney told USA Today.
LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said there were no signs of skidding to indicate braking – but the vehicle had anti-lock brakes, so even if Woods slammed on the brakes, “you won’t necessarily see traces of tires,” Felix Lee, a accident reconstruction expert, said the outlet.
Lee said a key clue is how the SUV did not change direction when entering the curve.
“My feeling is that speed was not so important. It was just a kind of carelessness that caused the strike on board, “said Lee, who is part of the Expert Institute, a network that provides expert witnesses in cases.
Cherney also said she saw no evidence of “any directional input” showing that the golfer tried to avoid the accident.
Rami Hashish, director of the National Institute of Biomechanics, which investigates accidents, told USA Today that this suggests a “very delayed response.”
“He suggested he wasn’t paying attention at all,” the expert said, adding that he suspected the damage would have been much greater if Woods had traveled too fast.
The speed limit on this stretch is 45 mph.
“You can walk away with a broken leg from 45 to 50 mph,” Hashish said. “If you hit 60, 65 and hit a stationary object, the probability of death increases exponentially.”
If he had accelerated to 80 mph, “he wouldn’t have an open fracture in this leg – he’d be dead,” he said.
The sheriff said investigators did not yet know the speed of the vehicle, but said it could have been a factor, as well as a lack of attention.
“This part of the road is a challenge and if you are not careful, you can see what is happening,” Villanueva said on Wednesday, adding that the crash was “purely an accident” in a preliminary assessment.
There was no evidence of the damage or medication involved, he added.
However, experts were surprised that Villanueva determined that it was an accident without yet examining the SUV’s “black box” computer, which could reveal steering, braking or acceleration actions before the impact.
“There is no real accident unless it is a real medical emergency,” Cherney said. “There is always a certain level of negligence, whether it’s simple negligence, such as looking down at the phone or changing the radio station that starts the entire collision sequence.
“So when the sheriff says this is just an accident, I don’t know how, in the world, you can say that so early in the game without completing a thorough investigation and reconstruction analysis,” he added.
In 2017, police found Woods asleep behind the wheel in Florida. A toxicology report said he had Vicodin, Dilaudid, Xanax, Ambien at the time – which is used to treat sleep problems – and THC.
Cherney also wondered if the SUV rolled a few times, as Villanueva pointed out.
“I think a rollover is a complete revolution, not just falling sideways,” Cherney said. “I don’t think the vehicle has experienced as many revolutions or complete rolls as it portrays.”
In his first comments after the crash, Woods said Sunday: “It’s hard to explain how exciting it was today when I turned on the TV and saw all the red shirts,” referring to his colleagues wearing his red T-shirt on Sunday. and black pants during the final round of the WCG-Workday Championship.
“For every golfer and every fan, you really help me get through this difficult time.”