Tiger Woods car crash update: Los Angeles County Sheriff says Woods is unlikely to face charges relating to the crash, while deputy sheriff describes the scene when he first arrived to tend to the stricken star
Wednesday 24 February 2021 21:25, UK
Tiger Woods is unlikely to face any charges relating to his horrific car accident on Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff.
While Woods recovered from lengthy surgery on "significant injuries" to his right leg, the local authorities indicated that there was no evidence that the 45-year-old was guilty of any serious wrongdoing that may have caused the crash.
Woods lost control of his Genesis SUV shortly after 7am local time, veering onto the opposite carriageway and rolling over several times before coming to rest on a grass embankment.
Emergency services were quick to arrive on the scene, and after Woods was retrieved from the wreckage, there were no obvious indications that the golfing superstar was impaired by drugs or alcohol.
"We don't contemplate any charges whatsoever," said Sheriff Alex Villanueva. "This remains an accident; an accident is not a crime. They do happen, unfortunately.
"This is what it is, an accident. A reckless driving charge has a lot of elements to it. This is purely an accident. There will be a cause of it and there'll be a vehicle code attached to the cause, but that's an infraction and reckless driving is actually more than an infraction.
"It's a misdemeanor crime that has a lot of elements attached to it. There's nothing like that here."
Deputy Sheriff Carlos Gonzalez, meanwhile, believes the car's interior safety features and design, coupled with Woods wearing a seatbelt, ultimately prevented the crash from being fatal.
Gonzalez was the first of the authorities to arrive at the crash site and tend to Woods, who he said had little idea of the severity of his injuries.
"So I ran over, and I'm able to get my upper body through the windshield, but it was dark inside the vehicle and all the deputy could see was a pair of eyes," Gonzalez told the NBC Today show.
"My first role as a first responder is to assess the passenger, the occupants, of the vehicle and I want to keep them calm as well. So I asked him, 'Can you tell me your first name?' He looked at me and he said, 'Tiger'.
"And it took me a half-second, but I saw his face and I thought, 'Oh yeah, you're Tiger Woods'. But of course, I've got a job to do, so I immediately went into assessment questions to gauge what his condition was in and what his mental state was at the time.
"I kept him talking I asked him basic things to gauge his mental state, just to see if he was aware of what had occurred."
