The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sheriff rules out impairment: Crash ‘is purely an accident’
A day after trauma surgeons fastened the shattered right leg of golf ’s most famous player together with a metal rod, screws and pins, authorities ruled out criminal charges against Tiger Woods while he recovered in a Los Angeles hospital following a one-car crash Tuesday morning, relief having replaced the worst fears from a horrific scene.
While the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department continued an investigation into the crash in a ritzy Southern California suburb, the department had already determined that Woods was not impaired and that any fault for the wreck would not rise to the level of reckless driving or a misdemeanor.
“This is purely an accident,” L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Wednesday. “There’ll be a cause of it ... if it’s inattentive driving or whatever the case may be. But that’s an infraction . ... An accident is not a crime.”
Sheriff ’s Deputy Carlos Gonzalez, the first responder on the scene, will lead the investigation. Gonzalez already has “all the information he needs from Mr. Woods” after speaking with him at the scene of the crash, Villanueva said.
Gonzalez found “no evidence of any impairment whatsoever,” Villanueva said. Because Woods was lucid, had no odor of alcohol and gave off no evidence of having used medication or narcotics.
“He was not drunk,” Villanueva said. “Definitely, we can throw that one out. We hold everyone to the rule of law, no matter what your celebrity status is. But there was no evidence of that.”
Authorities will still seek to determine the cause of the crash. Since January 2020, Villanueva said, 13 crashes have occurred at the location, including four in which a driver sustained injury. Woods was traveling down a steep hill before a curve.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department’s investigation will take several weeks at least, Deputy Trian Schrader said Wednesday. Like any into a car crash involving injuries, it probably will include a toxicology report produced by the hospital, Schrader said. It would typically take four to six weeks.
Late Tuesday night, Woods’ representatives said he was “awake, responsive and recovering in his hospital room” at Harbor-ucla Medical Center after emergency surgery to repair broken bones in his right leg, foot and ankle.
Woods “suffered significant orthopedic injuries,” Harbor-ucla Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Anish Mahajan said in a statement. He endured comminuted open fractures to the tibia and fibula, which means both major bones in his upper right leg broke into multiple pieces and poked through the skin, which increases the threat of infection and complicates recovery.
Doctors inserted a rod into Woods’ tibia and stabilized his foot and ankle with pins and screws. They also relieved swelling in his leg, an operation that experts said would be used to either alleviate or avoid compartment syndrome, a condition that can lead to the loss of a limb if not treated in time.