Tiger Woods Update: No Drugs, Alcohol Involved In Crash, Police Deny Preferential Treatment

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday there is no indication that Tiger Woods was impaired during his Feb. 23 crash, pushing back on the idea that the golf legend received preferential treatment in the investigation of the accident. It was determined that Woods was driving at an unsafe speed, going close to 40 mph over the legal limit.

L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva shot down speculation that drug or alcohol use might have factored into the crash.

“I know there are some saying somehow [Woods] received preferential treatment of some kind. That is absolutely false,” Villanueva said at a press conference Wednesday. “There were no signs of impairment.”

In 2017, Woods was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence when police found him asleep at the wheel. A toxicology report showed that Woods had several different drugs in his system at the time of the arrest. Woods later pleaded guilty to reckless driving.

The sheriff’s department did not obtain a search warrant for samples of Woods’ blood after the crash earlier this year.

“I know there’s a lot of experts who claim they’re drug recognition people and said, ‘Oh, they should’ve drawn blood or done this or done that,’” Villanueva said. “Without the signs of impairment, we don’t get to the point where we can actually author a search warrant and develop the probable cause to get that and execute that search warrant. So that did not happen and that is not preferential treatment. That would occur in any collision of this type based on the circumstances. And past history does not get you the elements you need to establish that probable cause.”

Woods’ SUV struck a tree, which caused the vehicle to go airborne. Police found the 45-year-old inside the vehicle still wearing his seatbelt, having sustained serious leg injuries. Woods had no recollection of the crash.

“The followup investigation after the fact, as the sheriff indicated, there was no evidence of any impairment,” Sheriff’s Capt. James Powers said. “There was no odor of alcohol. There were no open containers in the vehicle, and there were no narcotics or any evidence of medication in the vehicle or on his person.”

There was no field sobriety test conducted because of the nature of Woods’ injuries. Woods underwent emergency surgery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and spent multiple weeks at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Woods continues to recover from the accident at his home.