SEE IT: Video shows Tiger Woods driving SUV minutes before scary crash
Just minutes before his terrifying rollover car crash in California, Tiger Woods was caught on camera driving in the slow lane up a winding hill in Rancho Palos Verdes.
In the surveillance video obtained by TMZ, Woods’ 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV is seen driving behind a minivan on Hawthorne Blvd. at what appeared to be a regular rate of speed.
The time stamp on the video says 7:05 a.m., just seven minutes before first responders got the call for the harrowing crash at the site of a nasty downhill curve near the intersection of Hawthorne and Blackhorse Road in Rolling Hills Estates.
Woods was in town for the Genesis Invitational golf tournament and a celebrity photo shoot. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed the vehicle was a courtesy car.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Tuesday that Woods’ vehicle hit a center divider, “crossed into the opposing lane of traffic, hit the curb, hit a tree and there were several rollovers during that process” before the vehicle finally came to a rest “several hundred feet away.”
“Obviously that indicates they were going at a relatively greater speed than normal,” Villanueva said. “However, because it is downhill, it slopes and it also curves, that area has a high frequency of accidents.”
He said there was no evidence of “skid marks” or “braking” at the scene.
Woods was “calm and lucid” as he talked to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Carlos Gonzalez before he was rushed to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center with serious leg injuries, the deputy said at a press conference Tuesday.
The golf legend required “emergency surgery” to treat “significant orthopaedic injuries to his right lower extremity,” Anish Mahajan, chief medical officer at Harbor-UCLA, was quoted as saying in a post on Woods’ Twitter account after midnight Eastern Time Wednesday.
“Comminuted open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula bones were stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia,” the doctor’s statement said.
“Additional injuries to the bones of the foot and ankle were stabilized with a combination of screws and pins,” the statement said.
The post said Woods was “awake, responsive and recovering in his hospital room.”
According to Golf Digest, Tiger was heading to the second day of a shoot with the magazine and GOLFTV where he was due to give lessons to celebrities.
To clarify: Tiger is in LA for a two-day shoot with Golf Digest and GOLFTV.
Despite some speculation, he was not playing holes or hitting balls, but giving on-course lessons to celebrities. Tiger was in good spirits Monday. Did not arrive to course Tuesday.— Daniel Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) February 23, 2021
Reports by ESPN and others said he was due to meet Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert but was running a little late at the time of the near-fatal crash.
