TIGER WOODS ‘LUCKY TO BE ALIVE’ AFTER CRASH
Golfer seriously injured in rollover wreck near L.A.
The luxury SUV was moving fast along twisty Hawthorne Boulevard when its driver lost control, plowing into the center divider, smashing the “Welcome to Rolling Hills Estates” sign into bits, slamming into a curb and a tree.
The 2021 Genesis GV80 rolled and rolled. When it finally came to a stop about 30 yards off the road, it was lying on its side, so damaged that its doors could not be opened. There were no skid marks on the street, no sign of braking.
Firefighters extricated golf star Tiger Woods from the SUV he’d been driving Tuesday morning as he headed from a Rancho Palos Verdes resort to the Rolling Hills Country Club for a photo and video shoot. They needed an ax to pull Woods through the windshield.
Woods, 45, was already recovering from his fifth back surgery when he got behind the wheel Tuesday morning. By the time he was pulled through the vehicle’s windshield, he was unable to stand.
One of Woods’ ankles was shattered, according to a source familiar with his treatment. He had two leg fractures.
Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Deputy Carlos Gonzalez was the first to ar
rive at the scene.
“Mr. Woods was not able to stand under his own power,” Gonzalez said, and he had to be strapped to a backboard before emergency responders loaded him into an ambulance for the drive to the trauma unit at HarborUCLA Medical Center, where he underwent surgery.
“I spoke to him,” Gonzalez said. “I asked him what his name was. He told me his name was Tiger, and at that moment, I immediately recognized him.”
Woods is “lucky to be alive,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Tuesday. The golfer was the only person in the SUV, Villanueva said, which was traveling at a “relatively greater speed than normal” in an area that “has a high frequency of accidents.”
Villanueva said there was no evidence that Woods was impaired when he crashed the car.
Although Tuesday’s wreck was the third time Woods was involved in highprofile vehicle incident, it was by far the most serious. The first two did more damage to his reputation; this one could end his career.
In 2009, as he backed his Cadillac SUV out of his driveway in a gated Florida community, he struck a fire hydrant and slammed into a neighbor’s tree. Eight years later he was arrested in Jupiter, Fla., after police officers found him asleep at the wheel of his car. Woods later said the incident was caused by an “unexpected reaction to prescribed medications.”
At a news briefing Tuesday afternoon, Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Daryl Osby said Woods was conscious and stable at the scene of the crash, but that rolling a car is considered a trauma-level injury so he was taken to the nearest trauma center.
Woods’ manager, Mark Steinberg, said the golfer “suffered multiple leg injuries. He is currently in surgery and we thank you for your privacy and support.”
The PGA star was in Los Angeles as the host of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, a golf tournament that concluded Sunday. He did not play in the event, as he was recovering back surgery. But he told CBS announcer Jim Nantz in an interview during the final round that he hoped to play in the Masters in April.
“God, I hope so. I’ve got to get there first,” Woods said in the interview. “A lot of it is based on my surgeons and doctors and therapist and making sure I do it correctly. This is the only back I’ve got; I don’t have much more wiggle room left.”
Woods stayed in Los Angeles County after the Genesis Invitational to participate in a two-day shoot with Golf Digest/GolfTV. On Monday, a smiling Woods spent time with retired NBA star Dwyane Wade and comedian David Spade — both of whom documented it on social media — at Rolling Hills Country Club.
A source familiar with the investigation said Woods was staying at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes and had left there early Tuesday to head to the Rolling Hills Country Club, about 20 minutes away, for filming. Golf Digest confirmed that Woods was on his way back to the country club for an additional photo and video shoot when the crash occurred.
Woods lost control of the SUV on a curvy, steep stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard, a major road that cuts through the Palos Verdes Peninsula, where signs warn trucks to use lower gears when traveling downhill. The road was closed Tuesday morning as deputies investigated. A bright red tow truck was seen driving up Hawthorne toward the crash site about 1:30 p.m.
Sheriff’s deputies were photographing the scene and were set to take measurements and detail the wreckage before it was towed away. The front end of the SUV was heavily damaged and the windscreen frame had been removed where Woods was extracted from the vehicle.
Investigators were trying to determine whether any other vehicles were on the road at the time and might have played a role in the crash. Data can be extracted from the vehicle’s computer system, officials said.
Asked about the numerous deputies on scene examining the wreckage and documenting the crash site, Villaneuva said, “Any time there are injuries, an extensive investigation is required. The sheriff said it could take “days to several weeks” to complete the investigation.
Donnie Nelson, a resident of Rolling Hills, said that stretch of Hawthorne is the site of dangerous accidents usually once or twice a year.
“Most of the time, trucks come down the hill and lose their brakes,” he said.
Nelson said he knows at least one person who was seriously injured by a trash truck on the hill. The speed limit is 45 mph, but he said “cars fly by you here.”
Bob Fong, 67, lives on Blackhorse Road, just north of where the crash occurred.
He noticed police cars at the intersection Tuesday morning and thought, “It must have been some big celebrity that crashed.”
Fong knows how tricky the curves on Hawthorne Boulevard can be — so much so that near the crash site there is a runoff lane for use in emergencies.
“It’s a heavily trafficked area. There’s accidents all the time,” said Laureen Swing, a 15-year resident of Rancho Palos Verdes. “I think it’s almost a dangerous stretch of road.”
Swing was walking her dog a block from the crash site Tuesday afternoon. She said she stays on the right side of the road when she drives there “because I’m just afraid of people wanting to go fast.”
She didn’t see Woods’ crash, but she said a van crossed the median on the same road a few years ago and nearly hit her.