Why 'overlooked' clues from Tiger Woods crash in 2021 matter now

The last time Tiger Woods drove this recklessly and endangered other drivers, law enforcement authorities made a conclusion that didn’t seem to square with the evidence . They said there was “no evidence of any impairment whatsoever. ” They didn’t even issue Woods a ticket , let alone charge him with reckless driving or driving while impaired.

Woods, the golf legend, got off the hook in 2021, even though his car crash in Los Angeles County was more dangerous and might have had more signs of impairment than his latest wreck in Florida March 27 , according to the evidence and experts contacted by USA TODAY Sports. The recent arrest in Florida also raises the question whether Woods and the public would have been made safer if the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had handled Woods differently in 2021. "It’s pretty obvious to me it was overlooked in 2021," said Jonathan Cherney, a former police detective in Southern California who now works as a car crash reconstruction and police practices expert.

"It's easy to conclude that the L. A. Sheriff’s Department was either starstruck and/or there was an attitude of, 'Well he didn’t really hurt anybody else except himself, so why bother doing anything?

' The problem with that attitude is that nobody gave him any incentive to not do it again. " The crash in Los Angeles remains the only time out of four high-profile incidents since 2009 Woods wasn’t at least issued a ticket for his driving problems. Paradoxically, it also happened to be his most dangerous wreck.