Could Tiger Woods have been asleep at the wheel before crash? Forensic experts weigh in.
![Portrait of Brent Schrotenboer](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.usatoday.com/gcdn/media/2019/01/10/USATODAY/USATODAY/636827366605255888-BrentSchrotenboer.png?crop=478,478,x65,y67&width=48&height=48&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
The available evidence from the recent car crash involving Tiger Woods indicates that the famed golfer was not paying attention to the road and drifted off of it before crashing his car, three forensic car accident experts told USA TODAY Sports.
The same experts also say the evidence does not indicate he lost control of his vehicle because of excessive speed on a curved downhill road that is known for speeding cars.
They arrived at this theory based on several factors, especially the way Woodsâ vehicle appeared to keep going straight ahead instead of staying on the road as it curved right.
Woods, 45, was traveling north near Los Angeles when his sports utility vehicle left its lane, went across the median into the southbound lanes, went off the road, hit a tree, rolled over and sustained major frontal damage. Woods also broke multiple bones in his lower right leg, which indicates he was applying the brake at the time of impact, according to the experts. They also said the evidence indicates Woods applied the brake late into the collision sequence.
âTo me, this is like a classic case of falling asleep behind the wheel, because the road curves and his vehicle goes straight,â said Jonathan Cherney, a consultant who provides car accident analysis as an expert witness in court cases. Cherney, a former police detective, examined the Woodsâ crash site in person since the accident on Tuesday.
âItâs a drift off the road, almost like he was either unconscious, suffering from a medical episode or fell asleep and didnât wake up until he was off the road and thatâs where the brake application came in,â Cherney said.
There were no skid marks on the road to indicate braking, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. Woodsâ vehicle did have anti-lock brakes. So even if he was to slam on the brakes prior to hitting the curb, âyou wouldnât necessarily see tire marks,â said Felix Lee, an accident reconstruction expert who is part of the Expert Institute, a network that provides expert witnesses in litigation.
Lee said a key clue is how the vehicle did not change direction entering the curve and instead went directly into the median.
âMy feeling is that speed wasnât that much of an issue,â Lee said. âIt was just some kind of inattention that caused the curb strike.â
After leaving his lane and striking the median, Woodsâ vehicle went about 400 feet before stopping. Cherney said he didn't see evidence of "any steering input" that would indicate Woods tried to avoid the emergency.
This suggests a âvery delayed responseâ by Woods to the situation, said Rami Hashish, principal at the National Biomechanics Institute, which analyzes the cause of accidents. âIt was suggesting he wasnât paying attention at all.â
Hashish said he suspects the damage to the vehicle and Woods would have been much greater if he had been traveling at an excessive speed. The speed limit on that road is 45 mph.
âYou can walk away with a broken leg from 45 to 50 mph,â Hashish said. âIf youâre hitting 60, 65 and youâre hitting a stationary object, your likelihood of death increases exponentially.â
If he was going 80 mph, âhe wouldnât be having an open fracture in this leg,â Hashish said. âHeâd be dead.â
Villanueva, the Los Angeles County sheriff, said he didnât know the vehicleâs speed yet but said it could have been a factor, as well as inattentiveness. The accident was serious enough that it could end Woods' golf career. Woods had to be extricated from the vehicle and taken to the hospital for surgery.
âThis stretch of road is challenging, and if youâre not paying attention, you can see what happens,â Villanueva said Wednesday.
Villanueva said then that the crash was âpurely an accidentâ and that there was no evidence of impairment or medication involved. He also said Woods was âlucidâ at the time a sheriffâs deputy arrived on the scene Tuesday. But that doesnât mean he might not have been alert when he left his lane and kept going until he crashed.
The experts found it puzzling that Villanueva had determined it to be an accident already without having examined the vehicleâs âblack boxâ computer, which could reveal his steering, braking or acceleration actions prior to impact. Villanueva said Wednesday that information had not been pulled yet.
Regarding an examination of Woodsâ blood to see if he was medicated, Villanueva said Wednesday the hospital might have that information.
âWeâll assume that in the course of the treatment they draw blood and they have to do that obviously because he has to go into surgery and all that,â he said. âBut thatâs going to require a search warrant from our part to go into those details.â
USA TODAY Sports contacted the sheriffâs department Saturday to ask if Woodsâ black box or blood was examined. The sheriff's department responded with a statement:
âThe traffic collision investigation is ongoing, and traffic investigators have not made any conclusions as to the cause of the collision."
Woods announced in January that he recently had undergone the latest of several surgical procedures on his back. In 2017, police found him asleep at the wheel in Florida. A toxicology report stated he had Vicodin, Dilaudid, Xanax, Ambien and THC in his system then, when he was arrested on suspicions of drunk driving. Ambien is used to treat sleep problems and has been used by Woods previously.
âThereâs no real accident unless itâs a true medical emergency,â Cherney said. âThereâs always some level of negligence, whether itâs simple negligence like looking down at your phone or changing the radio station that starts the whole collision sequence. ⊠So when the sheriff is saying this is just an accident, I donât know how in the world you can state that so early in the game without completing an in-depth thorough investigation and reconstruction analysis.â
Villanuevaâs declaration that this was an accident was a âpreliminaryâ assessment, Sheriffâs Deputy Graciela Medrano said Saturday.
Cherney noted the weight of that SUV, a Genesis SV80, might be around 6,000 pounds, much more than a standard passenger car of about 3,500 pounds. Such heavy weight could help explain the damage done in the crash, as opposed to having it stem from excessive speeding, he said. He questions whether the vehicle actually rolled over "several times," as the sheriff previously indicated.
"I consider a rollover one full revolution, not just falling onto the side," Cherney said. "I donât think that vehicle experienced as many revolutions or complete rolls as they are portraying."
He also noted there are tire marks on the median, but âyou donât see any tire marks again until he actually goes off the road,â Cherney said. âAnd when he goes off the road, his left-side tires and right-side tires both struck it and you can see he just went right over the curb. To me, thatâs also indicative of him not applying the brakes, and he went ahead and continued off the side the road until he hit the brush. Probably at some point when he hit the curb, he regained consciousness and decided to apply the brakes.â
Woodsâ Twitter account Friday said that he was recovering from surgery and âin good spirits.â
âWe will not have any further updates at this time,â the statement on his Twitter account said. âThank you for your continued privacy.â
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. E-mail: bschrotenb@usatoday.com