According to a report citing forensic experts in traffic accidents, it appears that Tiger Woods was not paying attention in the moments leading up to his devastating accident, and that he may have fallen asleep behind the wheel of the luxury SUV he was driving.
The 45-year-old links legend was driving a Genesis GV80 in 2021 alone when he drove halfway down Hawthorne Boulevard to Palos Verdes Ranch, veered off the road and crashed into a tree, causing the car to turn.
Woods broke several bones in his lower right leg, indicating he was applying the brake at the time of the impact, experts told USA Today, adding that evidence indicates he braked late in the sequence. collision.
“For me, this is like a classic case of falling asleep behind the wheel, because the road curves and your vehicle goes straight,” Jonathan Cherney, a consultant who serves as an expert witness in court cases, told reporters .
The former police detective personally examined the scene of the accident.
“It’s a drift off the road, almost like he was unconscious, suffered a medical episode or fell asleep and didn’t wake up until he got off the road and that’s where the brake application came in,” he said. Cherney and USA Today.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said there were no skid marks indicating braking, but the vehicle had anti-lock brakes, so even if Woods tightened the brakes, “you wouldn’t necessarily see signs of tires, ”Felix Lee, a reconstruction expert, said at the exit.
Lee said a key clue is how the SUV did not change direction entering the curve.
“My feeling is that speed was not a problem. It was just a kind of inattention that sparked the braking strike, ”said Lee, who is part of the Expert Institute, a network that provides expert testimony in court cases.
Cherney also said she saw no evidence of “any direction input” showing that the golfer tried to avoid the crash.
Rami Hashish, director of the National Biomechanics Institute, which investigates accidents, told USA Today that this suggests a “very delayed response.”
“It was being suggested that he was not paying attention at all,” the expert said, adding that he suspects the damage would have been much greater if Woods had traveled at excessive speed.
The speed limit on this stretch is 45 mph.
“You can walk away with a broken leg at 45 to 50 mph,” Hashish said. “If you hit 60, 65 and hit a stationary object, the probability of death increases exponentially.”
If I were at a speed of 80 mph, “I wouldn’t have an open fracture in that leg; I’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 and a lack of attention.
“This stretch of road is a challenge and if you’re not paying attention, you can see what’s going on,” Villanueva said Wednesday, adding that the accident was “purely an accident” in a preliminary assessment.
There was no evidence of deterioration or medication involved, he added.
However, experts were surprised that Villanueva had determined it to be an accident without having yet examined the SUV’s “black box” computer, which could reveal steering, braking or accelerating actions before the impact.
“There is no real accident unless it’s a real medical emergency,” Cherney said. “There is always a certain level of negligence, whether for simple negligence such as looking at the phone or changing the radio station that starts the whole collision sequence.
“So when the sheriff says this is just an accident, I don’t know how in the world you can assert yourself so early in the game without completing a thorough reconstruction investigation and analysis,” he added.
In 2017, police found Woods sleeping behind the wheel in Florida. A toxicology report said he then had Vicodin, Dilaudid, Xanax, Ambien (used to treat sleep problems) and THC in his system.
Cherney also questioned whether the SUV actually rolled “several times,” as Villanueva has pointed out.
“I consider the fall to be a complete revolution, not just falling to the side,” Cherney said. “I don’t think that vehicle has experienced as many revolutions or complete rolls as they represent.”
In his first comments after the crash, Woods said Sunday, “It’s hard to explain how touching I was today when I turned on the TV and saw all the red shirts,” referring to his teammates wearing his exclusive red and black shirt sunday dress. pants during the final round of the WCG-Workday Championship.
“To all golfers and all the fans, you really help me get through this difficult time.”