Golf legend Tiger Woods has been arrested on suspicion of impaired driving after rolling his Land Rover on Jupiter Island, Florida, marking the fourth time since 2009 that he has been involved in a dangerous incident with a vehicle.
This is the second time he has been charged with drunk driving since 2017.
The Martin County, Fla., sheriff’s office announced Friday, March 27, that Woods, 50, was pinned from behind by a tractor-trailer on the road, causing his Land Rover to roll over and crawling lifelessly out of the vehicle, unharmed. The sheriff said authorities suspected Woods was impaired by medication or drugs, rather than alcohol, before he was taken to jail. Sheriff John Budensiek said he was alone in the car and no one else was injured.
Previous accidents involved the use of the sleeping drug Ambien. Authorities did not take his blood for a drug test after rolling his SUV in Los Angeles County in 2021. But experts said the evidence supports the theory that Mr. Woods was unconscious when he drove off the road and hit a tree before overturning.
In 2021, I lost consciousness after getting behind the wheel in Los Angeles.
In February 2021, Woods was behind the wheel in Los Angeles County when his SUV failed to stop on a curve in the road, veered into a median and into oncoming traffic, struck a tree and overturned. Woods was found unconscious with a broken leg. He didn’t remember what happened, didn’t even remember driving or what condition he was in at the time.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office determined that the cause of the accident was “driving at an unsafe speed for road conditions and failing to negotiate curves in the road.”
However, experts contacted by USA TODAY Sports reviewed the evidence and suspected that Woods was unconscious when his car veered off the road, as it did not stick to the curve in the road and continued straight toward the median and oncoming traffic without applying the brakes. A history of use of the drug Ambien was also cited as a potential factor, but no blood was taken to determine whether he was under the influence at the time. He was not charged with DUI and no traffic citation was issued. The sheriff’s department didn’t even bring in a drug recognition expert (DRE) to assess whether he was potentially impaired, raising the question of why not.
Ambien’s blood found in 2017 drunk driving incident
In May 2017, a Jupiter, Florida, police officer saw a black Mercedes stopped in the right lane of the road with its brake lights on and right turn signal flashing, according to documents obtained by USA TODAY Sports.
A police officer then approached the driver, but the driver had fallen asleep and had to be woken up. The driver was Tiger Woods. “Woods was very slow and had slurred speech,” the police report states. According to a toxicology report, he had five drugs in his system at the time: Vicodin, Dilaudid, Xanax, Ambien and THC.
He was charged with drunk driving and pleaded guilty to reckless driving. He received one year of probation and was required to complete a DUI school.
Snoring after an accident outside the house in 2009
In November 2009, Mr. Woods was behind the wheel of his Cadillac Escalade when it crashed into a row of hedges, struck a fire hydrant and a tree before coming to a stop in front of a mansion in Windermere, Florida.
A neighbor at the scene saw Woods unconscious and snoring, according to a police report.
However, the Florida Highway Patrol determined at the time that “insufficient evidence exists to issue a subpoena for additional medical information that may exist in this case.”
Woods was fined $164 for careless driving. Then Woods’ sex scandal ensued.
A few months later, Woods was asked about his use of Ambien and Vicodin while attending a press conference for the April 2010 Masters Tournament.
“Yes, I took it,” he said. “As everyone knows, I’ve been going through a pretty interesting knee situation over the last few years. I’ve had a whopping four surgeries on my left knee, and last year I had a torn Achilles tendon that was pretty painful at times. And yes, I had that. And most of the time I was on Ambien was when my dad was sick.”
He was also asked whether Ambien was involved in the 2009 accident.
“Well, the police investigated the accident and named me,” Woods replied. “And it’s a solved case.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
