WATCH: Police body camera footage of Tiger Woods’ car crash and arrest
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office has released footage of Tiger Woods’ court appearance, DUI test, and arrest following a March 27, 2026 car crash in Jupiter Island, Florida.
- Experts suggest the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department missed signs of impairment in Tiger Woods’ 2021 car crash.
- Unlike his recent arrest in Florida, Woods was not evaluated by a drug recognition expert or ticketed after the 2021 incident.
- Some experts believe the driving accident could have been prevented by holding Woods accountable in 2021.
The last time Tiger Woods drove recklessly and endangered other drivers, law enforcement officials came to a conclusion that didn’t seem to match the evidence.
They said there was “no evidence of any impairment.” They didn’t even issue Woods a ticket, much less charge him with reckless driving or driving while impaired.
Golf legend Woods is out of the woods in 2021, even though his car crash in Los Angeles County may have been more dangerous and had more signs of impairment than his most recent crash in Florida on March 27, according to evidence and experts contacted by USA TODAY Sports.
The recent arrest in Florida also raises questions about whether Woods and the public would have been safer if the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had responded differently to Woods in 2021.
“It’s clear that it was overlooked in 2021,” said Jonathan Charney, a former Southern California detective who now works as an expert in auto accident reconstruction and police practice. “It’s easy to conclude that the L.A. Sheriff’s Department was either starstruck or had an attitude of, ‘He hasn’t actually hurt anyone but himself, so why bother?'” The problem with that attitude is that no one gave him any incentive not to do it again. ”
The Los Angeles crash is the only one of four high-profile incidents since 2009 in which Woods did not receive at least a ticket for driving problems. Paradoxically, it was also his most dangerous accident.
Key differences between the current and 2021 investigation in the Tiger Woods case.
In the latest crash, on March 27, Woods was charged with driving while impaired after his Land Rover clipped a tractor-trailer from behind in a residential area, causing it to overturn. Woods has maintained his innocence and said he is resigning to “receive treatment and focus on his health.” In 2021, a Genesis SUV crashed through a median sign, ran into oncoming traffic, left the road, hit a tree and overturned, causing a broken right leg but no injuries.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department did not bring in a drug recognition expert (DRE) to evaluate Woods’ impairment in this case, unlike in Florida on March 27, when a DRE evaluated Woods and determined he was impaired. The LA Sheriff’s Department also made no attempt to obtain a warrant to draw Woods’ blood to assess the presence of drugs.
“Florida law enforcement responded much better,” Charney told USA TODAY Sports. “They probably looked at what happened with the L.A. Sheriff’s Department and thought, ‘Gang, we need to get this right.’
The conclusions of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, then under Sheriff Alex Villanueva, drew scrutiny from auto accident experts, including Charney, who visited the scene of the Los Angeles crash and told USA TODAY Sports it appeared to be “a classic case of falling asleep at the wheel because the road curves and the car goes straight.”
Evidence of Tiger Woods’ 2021 crash
Even without assessing his cognitive function, the following signs were present in 2021:
∎ Instead of sticking to the curve in the right lane, Woods’ Genesis SUV continued on a nearly 400-foot collision course in a nearly straight line. He hit a curb in the median, hit a large wooden sign in the median, sped into oncoming traffic, hit another curb and ran off the road, uprooting a tree and overturning.
∎ However, evidence in the case showed that Woods did not brake during the recorded crash sequence, swerved from the emergency, and did not remember driving. Can a conscious person swerve out of their lane in a straight line across a median or oncoming lane without any evidence of braking or trying to steer?
∎ Woods said immediately after the 2021 accident that he didn’t know where he was and thought he was in Florida instead of California. It was a reversal of sorts since 2017, when he was found asleep in a car with the engine stopped on the road in Jupiter, Florida. He told police he didn’t know where he was and thought he was from “Los Angeles, California.” At the time, five types of drugs were detected in his blood, including the sleeping pill Ambien and the painkiller Vicodin, and he was charged with drunk driving.
∎ An unlabeled medicine bottle was found inside a backpack at the scene of a crash in Los Angeles.
Why Tiger Woods’ 2021 crash matters now
Despite this evidence, the LA County Sheriff’s Department did not suspect impairment, instead stating that the cause of the accident was “driving at an unsafe speed for road conditions and failing to negotiate curves in the road.”
If the Sheriff’s Office had responded differently and evaluated Woods’ impairment, the evidence they obtained could have led to Woods being charged or not charged, depending on the outcome. If convicted, his sentence could change driving decisions, especially after a 2017 drunk-driving incident.
“If we had gone back in 2021 and found out that Tiger Woods was under the influence of drugs at the time of that incident, and been charged and convicted, it might have had a psychological effect on him and made him realize that if he continues to need pain medication for his chronic illness, he shouldn’t be driving,” said Doug Burnetti, a Florida traffic injury attorney.
Charney noted that a DUI conviction in California would result in a mandatory 90-day DUI program, suspension of Woods’ driver’s license and probation. That’s the whole point of traffic law enforcement: protecting the public and drivers.
LA Sheriff: ‘I won’t engage in speculation’ about 2021
USA Today Sports recently contacted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to ask if they would reconsider their conclusions from 2021 following Woods’ recent arrest in Florida.
“We do not engage in speculation about incidents that occurred five years ago, regardless of the individuals involved,” the department said in an April 2 statement to USA TODAY Sports.
When Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Woods was traveling at an estimated speed of 84 to 87 mph during the first portion of the series of crashes, the department instead referred USA TODAY Sports to the department’s press conference on the matter. Data received from the black box recorder in Woods’ loaned Genesis SUV showed that instead of applying the brakes, Woods was actually accelerating before the crash.
When asked at the time whether Woods had made a conscious effort to avoid the accident, Captain Jim Powers said, “I don’t know about that.”
Villanueva unsuccessfully sought re-election in 2022, but ran again for sheriff this November. His campaign did not return messages seeking comment.
Signals and patterns of Tiger Woods’ driving problems
Woods previously admitted he has trouble sleeping in addition to pain issues. He has been involved in four reckless driving cases since 2009, including drunk driving cases in 2026, 2021 and 2017.
In 2009, Woods was behind the wheel of a Cadillac Escalade outside his Florida mansion when it crashed into a hedge, hitting a fire hydrant and a tree. Neighbors reported seeing Woods snoring at the scene. Still, Woods was ticketed for careless driving, resulting in a $164 fine and four points on his driving record.
The most dangerous crash in Los Angeles was the one in which Woods didn’t even get a ticket. Just as I was lucky not to have the same accident in Florida on March 27th, I was lucky not to collide with oncoming traffic.
The difference this time is that law enforcement is holding him accountable.
“Tiger didn’t just lose his swing after 2009, he lost control of something in his life,” said Richard Tate, founder of Carrara Treatment, a high-end rehabilitation company in Los Angeles. “I’m not going to extrapolate beyond the facts, whether it’s pain management, administering prescription drugs, or anything else. But if the same type of incident happens over and over again, it’s not bad luck. It’s a sign.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
