‘Black box’ from Tiger Woods’s SUV will reveal how fast he was going before crash

‘We’re trying to determine if a crime was committed,’ says sheriff’s deputy

Detectives are examining the “black box” from Tiger Woods’ crashed SUV, after a search warrant was filed for the device on Monday.

An official from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department confirmed to USA Today that the search warrant was filed following last week’s crash in Southern California that left Mr Woods with serious injuries.

The so-called “black box” from the Genesis SUV driven by Mr Woods last week will reveal how fast the professional golfer was travelling in the seconds before crashing early last Tuesday.

It follows the suggestion that speed “was maybe a factor in this accident” and that Mr Woods was travelling at a “relatively greater speed than normal” along a coastal road, as sheriff Alex Villanueva said last Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Mr Woods, 24 hours beforehand, was driving northbound on Hawthorne Boulevard near Blackhorse Road when he collided with the centre divider, careened over the southbound lanes, and rolled over before hitting the hillside.

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Sheriff’s have since worked to investigate the cause of the collision, with deputy John Schloegl, saying to USA Today on Tuesday that “we’re trying to determine if a crime was committed”.

“If somebody is involved in a traffic collision, we’ve got to reconstruct the traffic collision,” said the deputy, who downplayed any suggestion of any criminality.

“We determine if there was a crime. If there was no crime, we close out the case, and it was a regular traffic collision,” Mr Schloegel said.

The comments came as deputy Trina Schrader said in a statement on Wednesday that detectives from the department were examining the device, but no details about the detail were revealed, as the Associated Press reported.

Mr Woods was not intoxicated at the time of the crash, officials said, while blood samples will not be requested by the sheriff’s department, Mr Schloegl added.

Mr Woods’, who is recovering from surgery following the crash, was described as having been cooperative with the detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.