In the early morning hours of Memorial Day in 2017, a police officer in Florida observed a black Mercedes stopped on the road in the right lane with its brake lights on and the right blinker still blinking.
The officer then approached the driver, who was asleep at the wheel and had to be woken up.
The driver said he did not know where he was and acknowledged that he “takes several prescriptions,” according to the police officer’s affidavit. One of the prescription drugs found in his system was the sleep medication zolpidem, which is commonly known as Ambien.
The driver was golf legend Tiger Woods.
Nearly four years later, on Feb. 23, Woods was found off the road in a crashed car by a local resident who said Woods was initially unconscious. A Los Angeles County Sheriff deputy at the scene asked Woods how the crash occurred.
“Driver said he did not know and did not even remember driving,” according to a deputy’s affidavit obtained by USA TODAY Sports. When Woods was asked again later at the hospital, he repeated that he did not know and did not remember driving.
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Despite those statements, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said there was no evidence of Woods being impaired. The sheriff’s department therefore didn’t request blood evidence to check for drug use, prompting another question surrounding the incident: Was this latest crash another case of Woods driving on Ambien?
Experts say the…
