On Wednesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said that golf great Tiger Woods got no special treatment during his single-car wreck investigation.
Villanueva caught criticism for quickly coming out to say that the February 23 crash was “purely an accident” before the full investigation was finished. He also immediately said that there was “no evidence” that Woods was impaired while behind the wheel and insisted he would pursue no charges, the L.A. Times reported.
Further, the sheriff’s department did not seek a warrant after the crash to determine if Woods had drugs or alcohol in his system.
The sheriff’s quick proclamations and the lack of a blood alcohol test led some to wonder if the five-time Masters winner received special treatment by the officials investigating the accident.
The department did issue a subpoena to obtain the vehicle’s black box data to determine if the car was being driven erratically ahead of the crash.
Regardless, Villanueva says that there was no undue favorable treatment.
“I know there’s been a lot of concern about, was he received any treatment any different than anybody else — he did not. He received the same treatment everybody else would receive,” Villanueva said Wednesday. “One, there’s no obvious evidence of impairment, and he’s compound fracture in a horrendous scene. Our concern shifts to the humanitarian, you know, life preservation, those kinds of things. And the accident becomes secondary.”
Still, the sheriff did admit that his department needs more officers trained in drug recognition.
“That’s something that obviously, lessons learned from every incident, how can we apply what we learned to future events and make ourselves more, a better organization, more effective,” Villanueva said.
Woods was released from the hospital on March 16 after undergoing surgery on both his legs to repair the severe injuries suffered in the February 23 crash.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.