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EXPERTS have claimed Tiger Woods’ crash in Los Angeles most likely occurred after the legendary golfer fell asleep at the wheel of his car.
The 15-time major winner underwent surgery at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Centre to stabilise compound fractures of his tibia and fibula, after the grisly accident yesterday.
On the weekend, it was announced Woods underwent a further surgery on his badly injured right leg. But now, three experts have claimed the crash most likely occurred due to fatigue at the wheel of his Genesis.
Woods’ car travelled across two lanes before running off the road, hitting a tree and rolling.
But experts claim one of the factors to why they believe he may have been asleep is because he continued straight, rather than veered, off the road. Injuries to his right leg also suggest he was applying the brake upon impact, according to the experts. “To me, this is like a classic case of falling asleep behind the wheel, because the road curves and his vehicle goes straight,” expert Jonathan Cherney told USA Sports Today.
“It’s a drift off the road, almost like he was either unconscious, suffering from a medical episode or fell asleep and didn’t wake up until he was off the road and that’s where the brake application came in,” he added.
Experts claim Woods’ speed wasn’t a factor.
Expert Felix Lee claimed due to the anti-lock brakes, “you wouldn’t necessarily see tyre marks.”
The accident reconstruction expert who is part of the Expert Institute also claimed speed was most likely not a factor considering the vehicle went straight into the median.
“My feeling is that speed wasn’t that much of an issue,” Lee said. “It was just some kind of inattention that caused the curb strike.”
After leaving the median, Woods’ car went around 400 feet (121 metres) before stopping, according to experts.
Cherney said there appeared to be no evidence of ‘steering input’ that indicated Woods tried to avoid the emergency.
Expert Rami Hashish claimed: “It was suggesting he wasn’t paying attention at all.”
He claimed the damage to the car and Woods’ leg would be much more severe if he was travelling at excessive speed.
“You can walk away with a broken leg from 45 to 50 mph,” he said. “If you’re hitting 60, 65 and you’re hitting a stationary object, your likelihood of death increases exponentially.” Woods is reportedly in good spirits recovering in hospital. – Yahoo Sport.
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