Expert Suspects Tiger Woods Was Unconscious Before Crash

Due to the lack of steering and braking
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 9, 2021 9:00 AM CDT
Tiger Woods Thought He Was in Florida After Crash
In this Feb. 21, 2021, file photo, Tiger Woods looks on during the trophy ceremony on the practice green after the final round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Ryan Kang, File)

A 22-page collision report on Tiger Woods' Feb. 23 car crash in Los Angeles was obtained by USA Today, and it suggests to one expert that the golfer may have been unconscious behind the wheel. Jonathan Cherney, a forensic crash reconstruction expert who visited the scene a day after the crash but was not involved in the sheriff’s investigation, says it looks like Woods fell asleep because he continued driving straight into a median while the road curved to the right. The report confirms there was no steering input until late in the crash, and no braking at all, though Woods was traveling up to 87mph in a 45-mph zone. "Had [Woods] applied his brakes to reduce his speed or steered to correct the direction of travel ... the collision would not have occurred," the reports reads. That lack of braking and steering "is not consistent with somebody who’s awake behind the wheel," says Cherney.

Woods did apply 99% pressure to the gas pedal, perhaps thinking it was the brake, just before hitting the median. Woods says he remembers none of this. The report reveals the golfer thought he was in Florida when he was interviewed at a hospital following the crash. His blood pressure was "too low to administer any type of pain medication," the report adds. A sheriff's captain attributed this to shock, though an empty and unlabeled pharmaceutical bottle was found in a backpack at the scene. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Thursday that the bottle "held no evidentiary value," per Los Angeles Times. Though Woods was found behind the wheel with Ambien, Vicodin, and THC in his system in 2017, Villanueva said Wednesday that were there was no indication of impairment in this case and that Woods would not be cited because there were no independent witnesses. (More Tiger Woods stories.)

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