On February 23, celebrity golfer Tiger Woods crashed a loaned SUV into a median. Three weeks later, new evidence reveals Woods may not have done anything at all to prevent the collision.
Initially, the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department believed Woods to be impaired. Yet, after an investigation, the crash was labeled an accident as no evidence supports the claims.
“He was lucid, no odor of alcohol, no evidence of any medication, narcotics, or anything like that would bring that into question,” LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said. “So that was not a concern at the time.”
However, according to TMZ, reported by Daily Mail, new evidence implies Woods “may have never pumped the breaks or even taken his foot off the accelerator before smashing his car.”
The new evidence was taken from the totaled vehicle’s “black box,” which shows that the golfer made no effort to slow down.
“The athlete had been driving at a normal speed before he arrived at the site of the crash, but he is believed to have floored it at some point and lost control,” Daily Mail reported.
Another supporting piece of evidence is that no skid marks were found on the street.
According to the Sherrif’s Department, the 45-year-old apparently does not remember the crash or the moment leading up to it.
All of this supports forensic experts’ earlier theories that Wood’s fell asleep at the wheel.
Charles Schack, the president of Crash Experts, subtly criticized the sheriff’s department. He suggests that they should have done more to evaluate the legendary golfer of impairment, perhaps like inviting a DRE (drug recognition expert).
“To an untrained person, sometimes the effects are a bit more subtle and require a bit more in-depth examination to bring out the evidence of impairment,” Schack said.
According to Villanueva, the department “was in need of hiring and training more of them, but lamenting that it ‘costs money.'”
All in all, Villanueva affirms Wood’s received no special treatment.
“For anybody suggesting he somehow received any different treatment than anybody else, he did not.”
