Investigators working to determine the cause of Tiger Woods’ rollover crash have obtained data stored in the “black box” of the luxury SUV he was driving, a report said.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department executed a search warrant to gather the information, which could show the vehicle’s speed before the collision and whether its brakes were applied, authorities told USA Today.
“We’re trying to determine if a crime was committed,” Sheriff’s Deputy John Schloegl told the news outlet.
“If somebody is involved in a traffic collision, we’ve got to reconstruct the traffic collision. If there was any reckless driving, if somebody was on their cell phone or something like that. If there was no crime, we close out the case, and it was a regular traffic collision.”
Woods was driving a 2021 Genesis GV80 alone when he veered across the median on Hawthorne Boulevard in Rancho Palos Verdes, went off the road and struck a tree.
The legendary golfer broke several bones in his lower right leg and is still recovering in the hospital.
A forensic car expert had told USA Today that it appeared Woods was not paying attention in the moments before the devastating crash.
“To me, this is like a classic case of falling asleep behind the wheel, because the road curves and his vehicle goes straight,” Jonathan Cherney, a consultant who serves as an expert witness in court cases, told the news outlet.
Felix Lee, an accident reconstruction expert, told the outlet: “My feeling is that speed wasn’t that much of an issue. It was just some kind of inattention that caused the curb strike.”
