How Rolling Hills Estates residents woke up to the Tiger Woods crash: ‘Oh no, another one.’

But the houses on Carroll’s street and those on nearby Rockbluff Drive represent the southern edge of the neighborhood, and their tree-filled backyards feature steep slopes down to Hawthorne Boulevard, a busy thoroughfare. There are no sidewalks on this stretch of Hawthorne and passing motorists might look up and only see bits and pieces of the homes due to the trees. Residents, though, have an overhead view of the road.

When Tiger Woods crashed his 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV just after 7 a.m. Tuesday, the call to police came from this neighborhood. After the vehicle rolled over several times and traveled several hundred feet from where it initially clipped a median, the golfing legend had landed in their backyard.

“We got the call at 7:12 a.m.,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at a Tuesday news conference. “That came from the neighbor. We have to assume they made that call almost immediately as soon as it happened. The neighbors are sitting right within 50 feet of the location. If they didn’t see it, they heard it. It happened right at their doorstep.”

Indeed, Carroll and his caregiver, like others in the neighborhood, rushed to investigate. Trees obscured their view of Woods’s vehicle from Carroll’s back porch, but they learned soon enough that an accident had taken place. The Los Angeles Fire Department responded by 7:28 a.m. to extricate Woods from his vehicle using a Halligan pry bar and an ax.

“It was just a big, loud crash,” Carroll said. “It was continuous. It lasted at least three seconds. We didn’t see any fallen trees. We looked down the hill. We didn’t see any accidents or hear anything until a little bit later when we heard the first responders coming. Then we knew there was an accident. They happen here all the time.”

Word spread quickly through Rockbluff Drive. While on a morning bike ride, John Hodgkinson, a 77-year-old retiree, heard from a neighbor that a vehicle had crashed in the green space below his home. A few hours later, news helicopters arrived to take video of the smashed vehicle, prompting Hodgkinson to turn on the local news.

“Nobody knew it was Tiger Woods until I saw it on the news,” Hodgkinson said. “I know he’s an inspiring person to a lot of people and an amazing athlete. I was thinking, ‘Oh no, another one.’ We do have enough accidents there.”

One Rockbluff Drive resident admitted that she hadn’t been awakened by the commotion, likening the experience to sleeping through an earthquake. Carroll estimated that there have been at least 30 accidents along that descending, curving stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard during his 50 years of living in the neighborhood, and he recalled that his father would walk down the slope out their backyard to attend to victims in the 1970s and 1980s.

Hawthorne Boulevard’s northbound lanes feature escape lanes on the right to help drivers who pick up too much speed coming down hill. However, Woods, who was driving northbound, crossed over the median and the opposing lanes before coming to rest in the embankment. Authorities said that weather were not a factor.

“The accidents are usually on the other side of the street,” Hodgkinson noted. “Drivers who are going into those escape lanes, or not [making it]. The road turns almost due east, just where [Woods] failed to notice that. I would describe this stretch as pretty hazardous. People go off the roadway pretty frequently. I’ve heard it was 7 o’clock in the morning and you’re going right into the sun on that stretch of the road. There was no fog that day.”

Most of the fuss came and went through this quiet suburb within 24 hours. Around 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Carroll captured video of a crane removing Woods’s vehicle from the crash site. The intense media presence that gathered on Hawthorne had dissipated by Wednesday: the helicopters were long gone, leaving only a few photographers scrambling through the brush below Rockbluff Drive. A handful of television reporters reported live from nearby Rockbluff Park and the Rolling Hills Country Club, Woods’ reported destination on the morning of the crash.

Rolling Hills Estates has close ties to the equestrian community: many residents own horses, riding trails dot the area, homes are decorated with horseshoes and there are several riding clubs nearby. Yet the Palos Verdes Peninsula is also known for its golf courses, and the sport is popular among many residents.

Woods, who was wearing his seat belt and was protected by his vehicle’s air bags, underwent surgery Tuesday at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center to address leg fractures, which required a stabilizing rod, and foot and ankle injuries which required the insertion of screws and pins. Once it became clear that Woods’ injuries were not life-threatening, Carroll, like many fans, wondered whether the golfer’s future will be forever linked with this stretch of road below his home.

“My first thought was that I hope no one was injured,” he said. “To learn it was someone like Tiger Woods, I was hoping that there were no injuries that would end his career. He brought golf so far along from, I hate to say it, being an old man’s sport. He did a lot for the sport. If this ends his career, they will say that he got in an accident on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. When it’s somebody that famous, people seem to remember things like that.”