Sheriff Executes Search Warrant for Black Box in Tiger Woods's Car


Sheriff’s Deputy John Schloegl told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday that this a routine part of their investigation.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department executed a search warrant to obtain the data from the "black box" in Tiger Woods's crashed car, per USA TODAY Sports

However, they did not seek a warrant to obtain Woods's blood to determine whether he was under the influence of medication at the time of the accident on Feb. 23. Sheriff’s Deputy John Schloegl told USA TODAY Sports that there was no probable cause to obtain it from him or the hospital.

The deputy added that this is a routine part of their probe. 

“We’re trying to determine if a crime was committed,” Schloegl told USA TODAY Sports. “If somebody is involved in a traffic collision, we’ve got to reconstruct the traffic collision, if there was any reckless driving, if somebody was on their cell phone or something like that. We determine if there was a crime. If there was no crime, we close out the case, and it was a regular traffic collision.”

The crash occurred around 7:12 a.m. PT on the border of Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes near Los Angeles. The golfer was traveling at a high rate of speed and lost control of the vehicle before crossing the center divider. His car rolled over several times and hit a curb and trees. Woods was wearing a seatbelt, and prybar and ax were needed to removed the car's windshield. 

In an update given Wednesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said the incident was "purely an accident," and that no criminal charges would be filed against Woods. There was no indication that Woods was impaired at the time of the crash.