{"id":573350,"date":"2026-03-31T17:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/573350\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T17:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:45:08","slug":"tiger-woods-told-authorities-he-was-looking-at-phone-before-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/573350\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiger Woods told authorities he was looking at phone before crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Tiger Woods told authorities that he was looking down at his cell phone and changing the radio station in his SUV, which caused him not to see a truck slowing down before his rollover crash last week on Jupiter Island, Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Martin County Sheriff&#8217;s deputy Tatiana Levenar wrote in an arrest affidavit that Woods was &#8220;sweating profusely,&#8221; and his movement was &#8220;lethargic and slow&#8221; while she interviewed him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Woods, 50, was arrested last Friday on suspicion of misdemeanor DUI with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said Friday that Woods&#8217; breathalyzer test didn&#8217;t show signs of alcohol. Woods refused to submit to a urinalysis test for other drugs, according to the sheriff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Woods&#8217; Range Rover SUV rolled over after it clipped a trailer being hauled by a truck. The truck had slowed down to turn into a driveway. Woods&#8217; SUV swerved and flipped on its side and slid down the road. Woods climbed out of the passenger&#8217;s window to get out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Another Martin County Sheriff&#8217;s deputy &#8220;observed several signs of impairment and requested I conduct a DUI Investigation to ensure Woods was able to operate the motor vehicle in a safe manner at the time of the collision,&#8221; Levenar wrote in the affidavit, which was obtained Tuesday by ESPN through an open records request.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">After Woods agreed to perform field sobriety exercises, the deputy observed him &#8220;limping and stumbling to the right.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Woods told the deputy that he&#8217;d had seven back surgeries and more than 20 operations on his right leg, which he&#8217;d severely injured in a car wreck outside Los Angeles in February 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">&#8220;I asked Woods if he was able to perform tasks such as walking and lifting his leg, Woods advised he has a limp and his ankle seizes while walking,&#8221; Levenar wrote in the affidavit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Because of his medical condition, Levenar told Woods to sit on the bumper of a police cruiser for the rest of the investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Once Woods removed his sunglasses, Levenar noted that his eyes were &#8220;bloodshot and glassy&#8221; and his pupils were &#8220;extremely dilated.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The deputy asked Woods if he&#8217;d consumed any alcohol, and he replied: &#8220;None.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">When Levenar asked if Woods had taken any prescription medication that morning, he stated: &#8220;I take a few.&#8221; Woods said he&#8217;d taken prescription pills earlier in the morning, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The names of the medications were redacted in the affidavit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Another Martin County Sheriff&#8217;s deputy found two hydrocodone pills in Woods&#8217; left pants pocket, according to the arrest affidavit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Hydrocodone was the drug found in Woods&#8217; system when he was arrested on DUI charges in May 2017.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Levenar instructed Woods to perform four field sobriety exercises. During one exercise, in which Woods was asked to follow the tip of a pen with his eyes only, he &#8220;continuously moved his head from side to side and had to be instructed several times to keep his head straight.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In another exercise, in which Woods was instructed to slap his hands and count, &#8220;He counted out loud, &#8216;one,&#8217; &#8216;two,&#8217; but did not make contact with his hands between each count.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">&#8220;Based on my observations of Woods, how he performed the exercises and based on my training, knowledge, and experience, I believed that [Woods&#8217;] normal facilities were impaired, and he was unable to safely operate the motor vehicle,&#8221; Levenar wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">After Woods was arrested, he was transported to the Cleveland Clinic ER South, but he refused all medical treatment. The 15-time major champion was transported back to the Martin County Jail, where he was held until he was released on $1,000 bond later Friday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">His arraignment is scheduled for April 23 in Stuart, Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Neither Woods nor the PGA Tour had publicly commented on his arrest as of Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tiger Woods told authorities that he was looking down at his cell phone and changing the radio station&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-573350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}