Woods well above speed limit at time of crash
LOS ANGELES: Tiger Woods was travelling more than 40mph (64kmh) above the speed limit when he lost control of his car, causing the crash that severely injured him in February, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said yesterday.
Heading down a notoriously dangerous stretch of road in the Rolling Hills Estates community in Los Angeles County, Woods’ car reached speeds of 135kmh140kmh when he lost control along a curve that has been the site of 14 other accidents, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at a news conference. The speed limit was 72kmh.
The SUV was going 120kmh when it hit a tree, Villanueva said. There was no evidence that Woods (45) was impaired or that he had consumed drugs or alcohol, the sheriff added.
The car’s socalled ‘‘black box’’ data recorder showed that Woods engaged the accelerator and never applied the brake during the incident, LASD Captain James Powers said.
That could indicate that he might have mistakenly hit the wrong pedal while trying to control the car, Powers said.
‘‘It’s believed that when you panic or you have some sort of sudden interruption while you’re driving, your initial thought is to hit the brake and it’s believed he may have done that but hit the accelerator,’’ Powers said.
The onecar crash left the 82time PGA Tour winner with a fractured right leg and shattered ankle, and stunned the world of sport and beyond.
Woods was not cited for driving at excessive speeds because there were no witnesses to the incident, which involved only his car, Villanueva said.
On Twitter, Woods said yesterday he had been informed by the sheriff’s department that it had closed the investigation.
The golfer expressed gratitude to those who had helped him, including passersby who called the 911 emergency service, and paramedics who rushed him to the hospital.