A Escalade helped upend golf champion Tiger Woods’ life after he crashed it into a hearth hydrant in 2009, and a Genesis GV80 may need saved his life in a crash final week.

Pictures and movies of the battered GV80, a brand new midsize crossover that arrived at sellers in December after an extended delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, have been plastered on TV and social media final week following the single-vehicle accident that left Woods’ proper leg fractured and his ankle shattered.

Woods was driving a GV80 courtesy car after serving as host for the Genesis Invitational golf event.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva mentioned at a information convention that the GV80 rolled a number of occasions after leaving the roadway whereas happening a hill. Fortuitously, Villanueva mentioned, the passenger compartment of the GV80 was intact and the airbags deployed. The truth that Woods was carrying a seat belt might very effectively have saved him from extra severe accidents or dying, the sheriff mentioned.

Throughout the event, Genesis had posted images on its Instagram account of Woods with the GV80. In a single, Woods, Genesis Motors America CEO Mark Del Rosso and event winner Max Homa stood in entrance of a GV80 on show on the occasion.

The incident resurfaced reminiscences of the 2009 Escalade crash outdoors Woods’ house in Florida that uncovered a number of extramarital affairs and derailed his meteoric profession. Woods wasn’t severely injured, however he and mannequin Elin Nordegren, who smashed the SUV’s home windows with a golf membership, reportedly to assist him get out, divorced the following yr.