Rose Onda
Tiger Woods is ‘awake and responsive’ in LA hospital after having a metal rod inserted into his shattered right leg and screws and pins in his ankle.
Tiger Woods was put under general anaesthetic while surgeons repaired his shattered right leg using metal rods, pins and screws following a ‘horror’ crash in South Los Angeles on Tuesday morning.
The 45-year-old sportsman had been driving from his hotel to a day of filming with GolfTV at the Rolling Hills Country Club, where he had been teaching other celebrities how to golf.
A video revealed Woods driving his SUV through the Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills neighbourhoods around 7a.m., minutes before the crash.
Police say Tiger Woods was travelling at high speed through a notorious accident black-spot when he hit a central reservation, smashed through a street sign, splintered a tree and rolled the car up an embankment, before firefighters cut him out of the car.
Doctors have described his injuries as ‘serious’ and have not said whether he will be able to play golf again.
Officers said it did not appear Woods was under the influence at the time of the crash, but will run blood tests.
The athlete was recovering from back surgery at the time of the crash, and while it is not clear if he was on pain medication, he was treated for painkiller addiction in 2017, also following back surgery and an arrest for DUI.
The car then came to rest in bushes at the side of the road where Woods was found trapped by Deputy Carlos Gonzalez, after concerned neighbors alerted the police.
Gonzalez said Woods did not appear to be under the influence at the time of the crash but that blood tests will be carried out as part of an investigation due to last ‘weeks’.
Gonzalez said he found Woods in the driver seat and that he was ‘lucid and calm’, likely due to shock, and revealed that he talked to the sportsman until the fire service arrived and used a halligan tool – a kind of crowbar with a large metal spike attached – to cut him free.
A neighbor who heard the crash called 911, and on arrival Gonzalez immediately realized that the golfer was too severely injured for him to move alone. Tiger Woods was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.