Tiger Woods Car Crash
Tiger Woods has been seriously injured in an automobile accident, ESPN is reporting.
Tiger Woods has been seriously injured in a car wreck in Florida, authorities said Friday.
The Florida Highway Patrol said Woods hit a fire hydrant and a tree as he pulled out of his driveway early Friday in his 2009 Cadillac sport utility vehicle.
Woods was taken to Health Central Hospital. His condition was not immediately known, though the news release said his injuries were serious.
The airbags in the car did not deploy, according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel. The newspaper said that airbags typically do not deploy if a vehicle is traveling less than 33 miles per hour.
The highway patrol says the crash is still under investigation, and charges are pending. However, the highway patrol said the crash was not alcohol-related.
The news is just breaking and details are obviously sketchy. CBS television is reporting “facial lacerations” but otherwise no news on the seriousness of the injury.
If alcohol was not involved and he was driving slowly, it’s also not clear what laws Woods is alleged to have broken. I suppose “reckless driving” is a catch-all. [UPDATE: Michael Reynolds speculates in the comments that Woods is unlikely to have been wearing his seltbelt, given serious injuries at low speeds in an Escalade. That strikes me as quite likely.]
Golfwise, one hopes Woods is not out of commission very long. Once considered a lead pipe cinch to break Jack Nicklaus’ career record for Majors victories, Woods has missed considerable time of late recovering from injuries. He certainly doesn’t need another long recovery period.
UPDATE: A CNN Breaking News alert informs me that Woods has been released from the hospital. Good news, indeed.
UPDATE II: The story gets much murkier. An AP report Saturday afternoon:
The Florida Highway Patrol says Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin, are not available to be interviewed by state troopers and asked police to return Sunday to try to clear up questions about how he crashed his SUV into a neighbor’s tree.
FHP says the announcement that Woods and his wife could not speak to police on Saturday came from his agent. Troopers previously visited Woods’ home Friday afternoon to speak to him and were asked then to come back Saturday.
Woods smashed his Cadillac near his $2.4 million mansion at 2:25 a.m. Friday and was briefly hospitalized, police said. His lips were cut, and Windermere police chief Daniel Saylor has said Woods’ wife used a golf club to smash out a back window and help Woods from the car.
None of this makes any sense if Woods was sober and driving slowly. How does his Escalade get so banged up that his wife needs to break into it from the back with a golf club? And why’s she carrying a golf club in the middle of the night, anyway? And why are they refusing to answer questions from police?
All this makes more sense if we factor in the rumors that Woods was having an affair and believe his wife was furious enough to scratch his face and chase him with a golf club.
Brace yourselves for the Tiger Woods PSA talking about the importance of seat belts.
Unlikely that you hit a tree at under 33 mph in an Escalade and end up with serious injuries if you’re belted.
Good point, Michael.
What the heck? How fast is this guy pulling out of his driveway?
I’m guessing the “driveway” is 2 miles long!
From the CNN article, it happened at about 2am but it did not appear to be alcohol-related. Still seems suspicious to me, there might be something more here.
And I agree with the no seatbelt theory. The other article said something about pending charges, so maybe that’s the reason.
I’m sure all of us have gone out on Thanksgiving night at 2:30 AM looking for infant formula and crashed our SUV into a fire hydrant and tree…………..
Or maybe not.
Look, we’ll nevre know. One thing must be true – no seat belt. And ….
Thank God he’s safe, for the kids, his wife, himself, and Jack……’cause its not so clear he’ll beat the record.
But I thought Tiger knew how to drive.
/I’ll be here all night, don’t forget to tip your waitress.
Yea, but he’s missed a few
fairwaysfreeways.Further reports say that his wife broke out his back window with a golf club to get him out of the car. No reason has been stated why he was leaving at 2AM.
Speculation: how many women run down the driveway at 2AM to the scene of a crash carrying a golf club?
Question: have they checked the golf club for a pattern match against the “lacerations” on his face?
Okay, NOW this makes sense: Tiger Woods: Injuries Caused by Wife, Not SUV
Apparently he got in the accident while fleeing for his life because his wife was beating him.
I would like to amend my previous concern for seatbelts. Although I am a safety advocate I don’t think seatbelts do much good when your wife’s giving you a nine iron upside the head.
His wife can beat him about the head while he is driving at 33 mph?
Usain Bolt, you better watch out. She’s right behind you, she is catching up, she has a nine iron in her hand, and….
she is pissed!
Can we please address the likelihood of a Swedish bikini model pulling 200 pounds of nearly pure muscle out of a rear car window? I can hardly pull a 20 pound toddler out the back seat of a sedan.
My goodness, I wish I were important enough to decide that my car crash was a private not a public matter, as Mr. Woods has. Not to mention getting to choose whether graciously to grant an interview with the police or give them the brushoff.
It is good to be king.
i hope his clubs are ok