While the investigation into the Tiger Woods car crash on February 23 continues, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department “executed a search warrant to obtain data from the car’s black box,” according to USA today.
Woods crashed his Genesis SUV south of Los Angeles, in an area of the city where, according to police, many car accidents happen due to the way the road is structured. At the time, LASO said the accident was “purely accidental”, but that was reversed on Tuesday.
“The sheriff spoke about the information known at the time and said it appeared to be a traffic accident,” LASO said in a statement. “However, the traffic collision investigation is (ongoing) and the traffic investigators have not come to any conclusions as to the cause of the collision.”
A warrant was obtained to obtain the black box as “a routine part of [the sheriff department’s] investigation. “This is done to determine whether a crime has been committed, said LASO USA today. But as the police determined at the scene of the accident that “there was no evidence of disability”, as they said last week, Woods’ blood was not drawn from the hospital by the department.
Tiger had no memory of the events of the morning of February 23, according to a search warrant testimony obtained by USA today, neither at the scene of the accident nor later, when he was taken to the hospital.
Woods was initially unconscious after the accident in Southern California, when a resident found the golfer trapped in a borrowed car and with blood on his face and chin, according to the deposition, which was presented by deputy Johann Schoegl of the sheriff’s Los Angeles County.
“The deputies asked how the collision occurred” at the accident site, according to the statement. “The driver said he did not know and did not even remember to drive … The driver was treated for injuries at the hospital and was asked again how the collision occurred. He repeated that he did not know and did not remember driving.”
Tiger has a history of driving with disabilities. He was arrested in Florida in 2017 after falling asleep at the wheel with various drugs in his system. However, he was more or less cleared of this, even though he was part of the investigation, when the police examined him on the morning of the accident. How USA today observed, there would need to be a probable cause of a crime to obtain medical data now. Getting the black box is a much lower bar at this point (the only likely cause of a misdemeanor) and a much more routine part of any investigation.
The path that Woods’ car took is absolutely scary. He passed a central flower bed, went up the street on the wrong side, passed a huge lamppost and went down in a small ravine on the other side, where he rolled. All without evidence of any skid marks or that he hit the brakes.
The information in the black box should reveal more about what happened, although only Woods could know the full story. Presumably, LASO will release this information in the coming days, as well as a more robust conclusion about what they believe to have happened. They can also accuse Woods of some kind of crime, depending on what the black box reveals, although it is probably not a serious crime.
Woods was recently transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he is undergoing additional treatment for multiple fractures in his right leg and ankle. Tiger was originally transported to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, which was closest to where his car accident happened. He was treated there for a few days before being transferred to Cedars-Sinai, which is more private.
His recovery time will be long, and there are doubts about how healthy he will be as a human being, not to mention whether he will compete again as a professional athlete. Woods appears to be in a good mood after the tribute his colleagues paid him last week at the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession, wearing red and black on Sunday for the final round.