The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s first deputy to arrive after Tiger Woods was involved in a car accident said the golf legend was “bright and calm” and did not realize how serious his injuries were at the time of the accident. .
In an interview on NBC’s “TODAY” show Wednesday, Deputy Carlos Gonzalez told Craig Melvin that when he arrived, the first thing he noticed was a vehicle about 12 feet from the roadway.
“Immediately the neighbor who called the emergency number said, ‘Deputy, I think there is someone else in the car,’” he said. “So I run over, and I can put my upper body through the windshield.”
It was dark in the car and the deputy could only see a pair of eyes.
“My first role as a first responder is to assess the passenger, the occupants, of the vehicle and I also want to keep them calm,” said Gonzalez. So I ask him, ‘Can you tell me your first name?’ He looked at me and said, ‘Tiger’. “
“And it took me half a second, but I saw his face and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re Tiger Woods’,” he continued. “But of course I have work to do, so I immediately went into assessment questions to gauge what condition he was in and what he was mentally like at the time.”
Gonzalez said he did not have the tools to remove Woods himself from the vehicle and kept the golf star company while the two waited for emergency assistance. Woods “seemed calm,” as if he were not in need, the deputy said.
“I kept him talking,” he said. “I asked him basic things to gauge his mental state, like do you know where you are now? Do you know what day it is? You know, just to see if he knew what had happened.”
The deputy said Woods could not stand alone and seemed unaware of “how badly he was hurt”, citing a “mixture of adrenaline and shock.”
When Melvin asked if a toxicology report had been ordered, Gonzalez said there was no evidence of a restriction and he was not aware of any reports.
Woods crashed his Genesis GV80 at 7:12 a.m. PST on the border of Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Tuesday.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at a news conference on Tuesday that accidents are not uncommon in the area due to the descents and curves on the road.
“Fortunately, the interior was more or less intact, which gave him the pillow to survive,” said Villanueva. “Otherwise it would have been a deadly crash.”
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In a statement Tuesday night, Woods’ team said he was “awake, responsive, and recovering” after a rod was placed in his leg during surgery.
Anish Mahajan, Chief Medical Officer and Interim CEO at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, said Woods, 45, “sustained significant orthopedic injuries to his right lower extremity.”
The bar was inserted into his shin to stabilize fractures, and according to the statement, screws and pins were used to stabilize injuries to the foot and ankle.
Gonzalez said the injuries could have been worse, giving Woods credit for wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.
“He’s going through something very traumatic, and I’m sure he’s going through a lot of pain, so I hope for a speedy recovery for him,” he said.
Woods is considered one of the greatest golfers in history. His 82 tournament wins are the most even in a career with Sam Snead, and his 15 majors are second only to Jack Nicklaus.
