Tiger Woods in hospital: LA County sheriff doesn't expect charges against golfer

The roll-over car crash that hospitalised Tiger Woods is being treated as an accident and Los Angeles County sheriff Alex Villanueva revealed he does not expect any charges brought.

The 15-time major winner Woods was temporarily trapped in the wreckage before being taken to hospital to undergo surgery on "significant" injuries to his right leg.

Speaking from his office on Wednesday, Villanueva explained that the 45-year-old showed "no evidence of impairment" when he was removed from the scene of the collision.

"Are charges possible in the crash? We don't contemplate any charges whatsoever in this crash," he said.

"This remains an accident. An accident is not a crime. They do happen, unfortunately.

"Another question here. Was he drunk? He was not drunk. That is, definitely we can throw that one out. Speculation. Irresponsible.

"No, there was no evidence of any impairment. I said that yesterday. And that's just the facts all the way there.

"If there was evidence of that, well then we'd proceed with that, however, and we hold everyone accountable to the rule of law, no matter what your celebrity status is.

"But there was no evidence of that. So this is an accident. We're treating it as an accident."

This morning @LMTLASD responded to a roll-over collision in which @TigerWoods was injured. Please see our statement... pic.twitter.com/cSWOxKZC1w
— LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) February 23, 2021

Villanueva said search warrants would be required were any further investigations to take place.

"We'll assume that during the course of the treatment, they did draw blood," he said.

"And they have to do that, obviously, because he has to go into surgery and all that.

"But that's going to require a search warrant from our part to go into those details."

In regards to the phone records, he said: "We'll find out [if he was using his phone]. And I'm sure his phone records might be relevant to that itself.

"And that's going to be up to the investigators and they will require a search warrant for that."