Tiger Woods Injured In Car Accident (No Alcohol, But “Charges Pending”)

by Rachel Sklar | 3:36 pm, November 27th, 2009

» 14 comments

Breaking news on Black Friday: This afternoon, news broke that golfer Tiger Woods had been injured in a car accident early this morning near his home in Florida. The reports quickly zoomed through Twitter, with questions about whether he’d been “seriously injured” (as early reports suggested) or had been drinking (as driving slowly and hitting a fire hydrant and a tree suggested). He is, and was, neither: According to his agent he is “fine” though he has suffered facial lacerations; also, great pains have been taken to get the word out that alcohol was not involved. Updated report from WESH.com from Channel 2 Orlando:

News has learned that golfer Tiger Woods was injured when he hit a fire hydrant and then a tree outside his Isleworth home early on Friday morning.

The Florida Highway Patrol said Woods was injured in the crash, which took place at about 2:30 a.m., and was taken to Health Central Hospital….

Woods was driving a 2009 black Cadillac Escalade when he lost control and hit a fire hydrant outside his home and a tree outside his neighbor’s home, FHP said.

FHP said the crash is still under investigation. It said alcohol did not play a role in the crash, but that charges are pending.

No doubt people will be filling in the blanks themselves until details emerge (Cadillac escalade, 2:30 a.m., charges pending — the “charges pending” part is the eyebrow raise. To see a few of those eyebrows go here and here and here and here). For those details and more you can surely find them on Twitter, where “Golfer Tiger Woods” has been trending pretty much since the news broke, or, as Newsweek did, from Mediaite columnist personal blogs (we kid, we love the Newsweek Tumblr). Probably quicker than going to MSNBC, which, as Brian Stelter reported on his Twitter, was way behind Fox, CNN and ESPN (ESPN being last of those three). Glad Woods is okay; we’ll post updates when they are available. Video report from CNN’s Ali Velshi below.

Update: According to the Windermere, Florida mayor, Woods has been released from the hospital. That video is below, too.

libra blue

Wow I am so relieved! What would we all do without his expertise at putting a ball in a hole? From what I understand CNN even interrupted its International showing of “Heroes” to announce it and some of the viewers are not too happy about it.

Is this story really deserving of an elaborate blog like this? I guess it is logical considering who the author of this post is.
Rachel Sklar

Hi Libra Blue, yes, this is newsworthy, it’s news that broke and it’s being updated in real time via multiple platforms with eyebrow-raising elements so yes, that’s all worthy of note particularly on a slow Thanksgiving Friday. Thanks for reading!
libra blue

I guess it depends on what your definition of “newsworthy” is doesn’t it?
Rachel Sklar

Yes, I guess it does! It’s got lots of Twitter traction, it’s at the top of Drudge and HuffPo, on the front page at the NYT…so yes, I think it’s newsworthy. But thanks for reminding me about Heroes, I will try to catch it on rerun.
SWWT

And the CNN Hero of the Year award goes to Rachel Sklar, for her valiant attempts to defend her web writing reputation in the face of attacks from a deadly and dangerous internet troll.

But TigerGate situation does seem really weird when you have all these reports
- the rumor of his affair a few days earlier (and by rumor I mean, it’s probably not true at all, but somebody said it for some reason cause they were just asking questions probably)
- his eerie silence about that and the accident
- How his wife used a golf club to bust through the back window and “help” him out
- being out at 2:30am
- “no alcohol involved”
- and who knows what else has been reported since I started this, it’s been on the news everywhere
pmetro

I glad that some one questions the details as they emerge. If you have a good imagination you can really run with this story !
libra blue

I see Sklar’s stalkers are out today.
libra blue

I don’t base my definition on what is or isn’t newsworthy based on what Drudge or especially HuffPo say it is. I definitely don’t get my news from the Twitter community that’s for sure! If it looks like something that should be on TMZ or E! it doesn’t fit my definition of news.
libra blue

The NYT? You are kidding right? Didn’t they used to employ Jayson Blair? Ha!
Rachel Sklar

I will add two more sources: NBC Nightly News and CBS News. Not sure that will meet Libra’s stringent standards though! Here it is from the Fox News website…http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577325,00.html?test=faces. Also here’s the link to Google News: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&source=hp&q=%22Tiger%20Woods%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn – AP, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Reuters…

But you know I’d rather write about Lady Gaga anyway…!
libra blue

Although most of them have their moments, none of the news organizations, including FNC, or news blogs are consistently up to my “stringent” standards. The BBC is the only news organization that even comes close. I take everything I hear or read with a rather large grain of salt because none of them can be trusted.

I do enjoy reading Mediaite, but I m not a member of its target audience. Frankly, I am a little perplexed by some of its recent blog posts that seem better suited for TMZ, E!, or other worthless celebrity oriented websites.

BTW, the pointless Lady Gaga post makes the Tiger Woods post look newsworthy!
SWWT

Jeez, lighten up dude.
Tater Salad

This guy Woods has got to be the biggest dorks besides Kobe Bryant. With all the endorsements each year well over $100 million, he has to be on drugs to be involved with another woman or just a plain moron. Hope it was good because it sure is going to be “expensive”, now and in the future with lost endorsements and “what not”.
hannah

I don’t feel sorry for Tiger Woods, he is just another over-paid sportsman. Ok, so the kid can hit a golf ball like no-one else, but does that make him a saint? I think some people are being too soft on Tiger, if he has cheated on his wife and betrayed his family then he deserves a bit of bad publicity. It seems that most of the sports blogs listed online at the sports index Dozensports.com are being too nice. Why can’t we say bad stuff about Tiger?
http://www.dozensports.com