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Tiger Woods Injured in Car Accident
Aired November 27, 2009 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Coming at you now, easy to prevent, expensive to treat. Pretty soon we'll have more diabetic Americans than ever before. How much will we all pay to treat them?
Plus, new details today on the couple who crashed the White House state dinner.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Out here, you really feel like a caged animal and it's the polar bears that are looking in on you.
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VELSHI: An intense assignment. Tracking polar bears; a team of CNN journalists gets an up-close view of life on the Tundra.
And what's your shopping personality? It's Black Friday, and your national conversation for November 27, 2009, starts now. Let's go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: I'm Ali Velshi, sitting in for Rick Sanchez. We will bring you all those stories we promised you.
But now we are staying with this breaking news: Tiger Woods reportedly in an accident and in serious condition near his home in Florida. Here is a scene from WESH, our affiliate in -- this is his home. This is Tiger Woods' home. According to our affiliate, this is according to the police report where the accident took place.
We are waiting for more news on the condition of Tiger Woods, but we have got, according to the -- we are hearing now news in that he has got lacerations, facial lacerations, cuts. Hard to determine from the police report what serious injuries mean.
But we are looking at pictures of Tiger Woods' home. This is on Deacon Circle in Florida. This is his home. And this apparently very close to where the accident took place.
Now, here's what I have got. We have got the police report right here. I'm going to tell you what it says. It's from the Florida Highway Patrol. It does say that the accident took place -- or the report, the time on the report is 2:25 a.m., so a little over 12 hours ago.
In orange, the report says that Tiger Woods was in a 2009 Cadillac SUV. It says that his injuries are serious. In the box where it asks whether the next of kin have been notified, there is no check. There's nothing that's been said there.
It asks if there was a seat belt or a child restraint involved. It says unknown. And under the box where it says alcohol-related, the word "no" is written in.
Here are the details from the police report from the Florida Highway Patrol about Tiger Woods. "The driver had just pulled out of the driveway at his residence." And we were showing you pictures at the residence. We will show you that again.
"The driver had just pulled out of the driveway at his residence located at 6348 Deacon Circle. As V1" -- that's vehicle one -- "began to drive on Deacon Circle, V1 struck a fire hydrant. The front of V1 then struck a tree located at 6342 Deacon Circle" -- that is not the same address as his home. "The driver was transported to Health Central Hospital The crash remains under investigation and charges are pending."
The injuries are being described to us as serious. We do not know what his condition is. We have just -- we have been told that the injuries are serious, and we are waiting for more information on that.
Now, Tiger Woods is a name that is known to everyone. He is -- he has won 14 major competitions in golf. He has more career wins for the PGA than anyone else. He was the highest paid athlete in the world in 2008, earning about $110 million from endorsements and winnings that he's had.
He's credited by many people with a growth in the popularity of golf because he's one of those people who has been so associated with almost supernatural skill in the sport that he has drawn a lot of interest in it and he's also sort of stimulated a lot of parents to want to get their kids early into golf.
Now, Tiger Woods has sustained injuries in the past. He came back. He had knee surgery last year, came back fairly successfully from that. But he has -- this is where his home is located. And that's what we're looking at. We're getting pictures in from our affiliate in Florida showing us pictures outside of Tiger Woods' home or what they tell us is Tiger Woods' home.
We do not know who else was in the vehicle at the time or at the home, for that matter. This report is filed at 2:25 a.m. And it's not clear from the report, which I'm looking at, I have got in my hand, whether the report was filed at 2:25 or the accident is said to have taken place at 2:25, but early hours of the morning.
So, we do not know what the circumstances were, who was in the car. Now, his wife just gave birth to their second child earlier this year. The boy, his name was Charlie Axel, was born on February the 8th of this year. So, Tiger Woods has two children and lives with his wife.
But we don't know whether his family was at the home at the time, whether his wife was there or who was in the car. And, more importantly, we do not know what the circumstances were that led Tiger Woods to be driving a car that hit a hydrant outside of his house or anything else.
I will tell you that, again, according to this police report from the Florida Highway Patrol, Tiger Woods was -- the report says -- under the box that says alcohol related, it says no. That's the information we have on the situation involving Tiger Woods in Florida, but this is what we know.
There has been an accident. The injuries sustained are described as serious. We don't know what he is -- we are -- I'm just hearing from my producer that we have confirmed that Tiger Woods remains in hospital. He was transferred to something called Health Central Hospital, a place called Health Central Hospital, near his home in Florida.
We are going to update this story as information is coming in now. You stay with us on CNN and we will continue our coverage of the situation surrounding Tiger Woods.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right, continuing our breaking news on this story of Tiger Woods.
We have confirmed reports that Tiger Woods was involved in a car accident, a car crash, last night, early this morning. Those are pictures from our affiliate WESH from Windermere, Florida, Orange County. That is very close to Orlando. It's described as a suburb of Orlando.
We will be giving you some details as to where that is. Those are some pictures coming in. According to the police report that I have in my hand from the Florida Highway Patrol, it's timed -- time-stamped at 2:25 a.m. -- a 2009 Cadillac SUV driven by Tiger Woods was involved in an accident.
The driver pulled out of the driveway at his residence and -- located at 6348 Deacon Circle. As the vehicle began to drive on Deacon Circle, it struck a fire hydrant. The front of the vehicle then struck a tree located at 6342, which I imagine is a house or two away from Tiger Woods' residence.
The driver was transported to Health Central Hospital. The crash remains under investigation. Charges are pending. It does say very clearly on this press release that it was not alcohol-related.
We have confirmation that Tiger Woods remains in hospital and that his injuries are serious, but that his condition is not necessarily serious. And I don't want to say that it's not serious. I'm saying that there's a distinction between those two things. And we do not know that his condition is serious. We know that he was seriously injured. According to our affiliate, he has suffered facial lacerations.
We're going to continue our coverage of this. Tiger Woods, for those -- Tiger Woods, as you know, is one of the most prolific athletes and certainly the highest earning athlete as of last year, earning more than $110 million in winnings and sponsorships. We do not know his condition, but we have affiliates on the way to his home. We have reporters on the story.
We will bring you every shred of information there is to know about this accident and the condition that Tiger Woods is in. Stay with us with this. Momentarily, I will be speaking with somebody who interviewed Tiger Woods and knows a lot about him very shortly.
Now, another developing story this hour, the pair of pilots who said they were distracted, distracted. Remember this, the Northwest Airlines flight last month that overshot its destination in Minneapolis because the pilots were -- quote -- "distracted"?
Well, today we hear them. We hear the pilots and we hear what they say. We hear the controllers. They're relieved just to talk to somebody on that plane. The FAA has just released the cockpit audio recordings from that day. Now, we have heard them. You're about to hear them. Roll it.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... 15-10, if you would transmit on -- change to frequency 1-3-3 point 4-5 and transmit to a Northwest 1-88 and see if he answers you. Then come on back here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, you want 33-45 Northwest to 1-88 to come to your frequency?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Northwest 15-10, if you can raise him on that, yes, have him come over to this frequency.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you talking to that Northwest 1-88 now or...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... 13 is...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, nobody's talking to him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They took Nordo out of his...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're right. Maybe something's happening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard some chitchat about...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They got him. I just heard they got him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Thanks. (END AUDIO CLIP)
VELSHI: All right, that was controller chatter going on before they were able to raise contact with the pilots of Northwest Flight 188. At that point, the controllers didn't know if that flight was in trouble or why they hadn't been able to talk to the pilots. Then, finally, finally, a voice from the cockpit. Listen to this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Minneapolis, Northwest 1-88.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Minneapolis Center. Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. We got distracted and we have overflown Minneapolis. We are overhead Eau Claire and we would like to make a 180 and do arrival from Eau Claire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Northwest 188, roger. Turn to the right to a heading of 1-0-0.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VELSHI: OK. To refresh your memory, that was on October 21.
Northwest Flight 188 left San Diego. Destination was Minneapolis. The pilot co-pilot say they were using their laptop computers and didn't notice that they had flown past Minneapolis.
Now, let me read you a little more of that conversation. Remember, this was the controllers' main concern, that something had happened to the crew, something awful had happened to the crew.
Listen to this.
Minneapolis Center -- that's control -- asks -- quote -- "I just have to verify that the cockpit is secure."
The Northwest pilot now turning the plane around responds with: "It is secure. We got distracted."
There were 144 passengers on board that flight. The pilots turned the plane around, and they did land. The FAA yanked their licenses, calling them extremely reckless for losing track of time. What we don't have on those tapes is what was going on, the conversation that was going on in all that time that the pilots were apparently distracted. That would be interesting to hear.
All right, being overweight, it is a factor in many diabetes cases and it costs a lot to treat. The cost to treat diabetes in fact could triple, and we will all be paying for it. That's coming up next.
And more on our breaking story, the Tiger Woods car accident in Florida. We're monitoring all the new information coming in on that story. And we will have it to you shortly.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Breaking news right now, and that is that Tiger Woods has been involved in a serious car accident, or a car accident where his injuries are described as serious.
This took place outside his home in Windermere, Florida, Orange County, Florida, outside of Orlando. We have pictures there of the area outside his home from our affiliate WFTV, and our affiliate WESH is also there.
We also have a CNN journalist at the hospital, the Health Central Hospital, which is where Tiger Woods is. In fact, we have confirmation that he remains there. He's suffering, according to our affiliates, with facial lacerations. We don't know more about his condition. We know that he has served serious injuries. We don't know his condition.
We don't know who was in the car with him. We know, though, that the police report, or at least the release that we have been given by the Florida Highway Patrol indicates that it was -- that the time on this was 2:25 in the morning. It does say that Tiger Woods was in a 2009 Cadillac SUV, which had just pulled out of the driveway at his residence. He began to drive on Deacon Circle, which is the road you're looking at there.
It struck a fire hydrant. The vehicle a fire hydrant, then struck a tree located a little down the street from his residence. The driver was transported, that driver being Tiger Woods, was transported to Health Central Hospital.
Let's go to Health Central Hospital right now.
John Couwels, a CNN journalist, is there at the hospital -- John.
JOHN COUWELS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ali.
I just arrived moments ago. And the outside of the hospital is lined with the local reporters from the local stations here. And our calls into the hospital have neither confirmed nor denied reports of him being here.
But various local reports have said that he is here. But, as you had stated, the Florida Highway Patrol in their release stated that Tiger Woods' injuries were serious, but we don't exactly know his actual condition. We haven't been able to confirm those conditions, other than -- and the fact that -- if he's still here in the hospital. But all indications seem to be as though he may be at this location, but we haven't been able to confirm that for sure.
VELSHI: Right. And that's what we're getting from our affiliates.
We're going to dig a little, John, into the distinction, and you will help us with that when you get a chance to speak to somebody at the hospital, the distinction between his condition being serious and his injuries being serious. People around here who know more about this are telling us that there's a distinction between the two, so that he may have serious injuries which we have heard from our affiliates are facial lacerations, or at least involve facial lacerations. We don't know that that means his condition is serious.
Tiger Woods has just recovered last year from knee injury that he's gone into. It didn't hurt him too much in his situation.
Listen, tell us a little bit, John, for those of us who don't know the geography all that well, where the hospital is vs. Orlando and where his house is.
COUWELS: Tiger Woods' house is out in the Windermere area. And that is very much in the very western end of the Orlando area.
And Health Central is also at the western end of the Orlando metropolitan area. Technically, Windermere is its own city, and so is -- Health Central is in the city of Ocoee, which is adjacent to the city of Orlando.
Now, this would have been the closest major hospital to the Windermere area. The next major hospital that would accept more serious injuries is closer to the downtown area, which is the Metropolitan Hospital close to downtown.
VELSHI: All right, John, stay with us, unless somebody, of course, needs to talk to you because we want to get the information from that hospital as soon as we can.
Gary Bruhn is the mayor of Windermere, Florida. He's on the line with us as well.
Mayor Gary Bruhn, are you on the line with us?
GARY BRUHN, MAYOR OF WINDERMERE, FLORIDA: Yes, I am.
VELSHI: All right, Mayor, thanks for joining us.
Do you know whether Tiger Woods is still in hospital right now?
BRUHN: As I understand it, he has been released.
VELSHI: OK. So you think he's been released. That's what you have heard?
BRUHN: Yes.
VELSHI: OK. So, now we're going to get down to the bottom of this. We don't know what the story is. We have got our journalist at the hospital who's going to try and confirm that. You understand he's been released. You have that on good authority?
BRUHN: Yes, I do.
VELSHI: OK. Do you know if he's been released and headed home or where he's going?
BRUHN: I could not answer.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: What do you know about this situation?
BRUHN: Well, an accident occurred about 2:30 this morning. Windermere police were first upon the scene. Because we're basically right there, we could arrive within a minute-and-a-half on our border.
I understand that there was some facial lacerations. He was taken to Health Central Hospital, and where he was treated and then I'm then told that he was released.
VELSHI: Do you know what the call was when it came in that your police responded to?
BRUHN: I do not know specifically. I would assume, because of it going out, would have been 911. And of course we have mutual aid, meaning whoever's closest to the scene will arrive. And we would have been the first ones upon the scene because basically I can actually say they're maybe two minutes from our police station. Then that would have been followed up with the Orange County, who would have had jurisdiction in that area and would have taken over the investigation.
VELSHI: What do you know about what happened? We have heard -- a police report says he pulled out of the driveway, drove on Deacon Circle, struck a fire hydrant, and then struck a tree. We're trying to piece together what that means.
BRUHN: That is the same information that I am getting, yes.
VELSHI: Do you have any idea as to what was behind that?
BRUHN: No, not at all.
VELSHI: It says charges pending. I guess that's sort of normal for a police report if there are no charges...
BRUHN: Sure.
(CROSSTALK)
BRUHN: Something like this would be just an ongoing investigation. I think it's nothing more than an accident, you know, but from that standpoint, they have got to do their -- let everything run its full course and do the investigation to see what was involved.
VELSHI: And, as far as you understand, is there -- that investigation is active at the moment and they're out there trying to figure out what happened?
BRUHN: I (AUDIO GAP) know that it will probably be an ongoing investigation and that could take, you know, a number of days for it to come to conclusion. VELSHI: Is Health Central Hospital the logical place that they would have transported somebody from that location if they were involved in an accident?
BRUHN: Absolutely. Health Central is the hospital that serves Windermere, Ocoee, and the entire western area of Orange County. That would be the hospital that he would be taken to.
VELSHI: So, Mayor, there's nothing about the situation that you know that seems unusual?
BRUHN: Absolutely not anything that I'm aware of. It just seems like a very strange accident that occurred. We responded and made sure that his safety was taken care of. And as I understand it, basically, it was facial lacerations, and, as I'm understanding it, nothing that serious.
VELSHI: Well, we hope you're right about that.
BRUHN: Totally. Our prayers and hopes go out with Tiger, especially during this time of the Thanksgiving holiday.
VELSHI: That's right. Mayor Gary Bruhn of Windermere, Florida, thank you for joining us.
We will continue to cover this story. John Couwels, CNN all-platform journalist, is at the hospital where Tiger Woods was taken after this accident.
Just to recap for you, we understand that Tiger Woods was involved in an accident in a car. He was driving a Cadillac SUV 2009. That's a picture of his house that we're looking at right now. He was taken to Health Central Hospital. And that's what we have for sure.
Beyond that, we are trying to establish whether he's been released from hospital or whether he's still there. According to the mayor of Windermere, whose police responded to that call early in the morning this morning, his understanding is that he has been released.
We have somebody at the hospital who's going to try and get to the bottom of that right now. We also have somebody who knows Tiger Woods very well. We're going to have a conversation with him -- or at least has had a conversation very recently with Tiger Woods.
We will continue to bring you this story, this breaking news on Tiger Woods, right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: A breaking news story we're following is as a result of a report from the Florida Highway Patrol, a press release from them indicating that early, early this morning, they responded to a call.
Tiger Woods was involved in an accident on the street on which he lives, an automobile accident. He was the driver of a 2009 Cadillac SUV. He was then transported to hospital with injuries described on the police release as being serious.
We don't know what his condition is. We have a journalist at Health Central Hospital in Florida in the Orlando area. You're looking at pictures from our affiliate WFTV from outside Tiger Woods' home, the street outside Tiger Woods' home. According to the report, Tiger Woods was driving on the circle, Deacon Circle, that he lives on. He struck a fire hydrant, then struck a tree, and then was taken to hospital.
We just spoke to the mayor of Windermere.
I want to just get a sense of where Windermere, Florida, is.
Chad Myers, you with us?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Central part of the state, Ali, very -- not that far from Kissimmee and the Walt Disney World area.
On that picture, above the word breaking, above the B. there, you see those barricades. And on Google Earth and also on Bing Maps, I was able to see that at some point in time there really was a fire hydrant there, even though you couldn't see it on that map. Either it was still there and you couldn't see it because of the barricades, but that was the one that he hit and then kind of proceeded off into the neighbor's yard.
We will back you up here and I will take you back in to Windermere, Florida. Just going to walk right over here and zoom into this map, because the little guy doesn't seem to want to go. Just stay right there on that map there and we will fly in. There we go. Right in the middle of Orlando, right there is the town. Right there is Tiger Woods' residence and also the accident location.
So, literally, Ali, he only had about 100 feet of acceleration even to get to that point where his house, where he came out of his driveway, and into the spot right there, where that -- those barricades are now that you see.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: So, I can kind of zoom out a little bit, a very exclusive area, completely gated. Don't try to go there, because you can't there. Obviously, all this here all golf course all around these lakes.
We will keep zooming out because we're going to get to Bay Hill and then we're going to get to Windermere. And then all of the sudden, we're going to -- as we zoom farther and farther out, here's Orlando. The airport is going to be right here. You will be able to see the runways right through there and that's it.
And as we keep zooming out from the middle part, there would be where the shuttle is. There's Tampa right through here and there's Central Florida.
(CROSSTALK) VELSHI: All right, it's good to get some sense of it. We just heard from the mayor of Windermere, who said his police responded, he was transported to what made sense, Health Central as being the logical hospital that they would take someone to that was injured there.
And we have a report from the mayor. He says he understands Tiger Woods has been released from hospital. We don't have that confirmed just yet. So, we're going to stay on that.
Chad, thank you for that.
I want to take you to Jimmy Roberts, who's a correspondent with NBC golf, an analyst with NBC golf. Obviously, you see a lot of those matches on NBC.
Jimmy, what do you know about this?
JIMMY ROBERTS, NBC SPORTS GOLF COMMENTATOR: Just what I'm hearing and reading, not much more than that.
You know, I know that Tiger played last two weeks ago in Australia and won.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROBERTS: And I know that he was scheduled to play next week in his own tournament, which is the Chevron Challenge.
VELSHI: Right. This one is going to be at Thousand Oaks in California?
ROBERTS: Thousand Oaks, right.
VELSHI: And he had won that quite frequently. Obviously, he didn't play last year because at this time last year, he was still recovering from his knee injury.
ROBERTS: That's right.
It's a limited field event. It's an invitational...
VELSHI: Right.
ROBERTS: ... generally, the top players in the world. But it's his tournament. It's been sponsored by a number of different companies, and most recently Chevron.
VELSHI: Right.
ROBERTS: It's been around for about 10 years now. I think the first one was actually 1999, so maybe it is exactly 10 years. But, yes, he was scheduled to play. It will be interesting to see if he plays next week or not.
VELSHI: Jimmy, hang on.
I have got Patrick Snell here. Here's with CNN.
Patrick, you have spoken to -- as we know, this is a bit of the off- season in golf. You spoke to Tiger Woods toward the end of the season, just a couple months ago.
PATRICK SNELL, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just before, in fact, Ali, he shot off down off to Asia and Melbourne for the Australian Masters, as Jimmy alluded to.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROBERTS: Season ending FedEx Cup finale playing out here in East Lake in Atlanta, a little quick one-on-one with him.
He wasn't a happy bunny in terms of his golfing performance. He had just been upstaged on that final day at East Lake by his great friend and rival, his fellow American Phil Mickelson. And although he did go on and land the overall $10 million-plus FedEx Cup finale title prize money, he had lost out to Mickelson on the day.
Form has been a little bit up and down throughout 2009. But it's been a year for him in terms getting back on track after the surgery. He's seemingly over that. And now he's facing what could be another lengthy layoff. We don't know, of course. Details are still sketchy. But 2009 was all about the come back from him, and proving not so much his form, but his fitness and now he's facing this.
VELSHI: Well, Jimmy, nobody wants to wish any kind of injury on anyone, but the only information we have at the moment about his condition is an unconfirmed report that he has facial lacerations, and another unconfirmed report from the mayor of Windermere, Florida that he's been released from hospital. If those two things are true, then that's a good outcome of a bad accident?
ROBERTS: I guess. I mean, you know, at this point, I think everything is highly speculative. You got to remember that he won the U.S. Open two years ago playing on a broken leg.
VELSHI: So What's your sense of where he is in his career, In his career of greatness. He's somebody that's been described as one of the finest athletes of all time, somebody with an ability that goes beyond the average of the best.
ROBERTS: Well, I -- you know, this is the subject of much debate all over the world. I can just tell you this: I was actually preparing something for next week for our broadcast, and looked at some numbers, and I can tell you that in the heart of his career, Jack Nicklaus won 15 percent of the time that he played, and that pretty much set the standard for success in golf.
Tiger Woods, over the last ten years, has won 30 percent of the time that he's played. So it's double the success rate of the best player to have ever played the game. So, you know, endless discussion about Tiger and what he's accomplished and what he might yet accomplish. But he's also one of the fittest golfers certainly. And it's been said many times, that this is a guy who looks more like a big defensive back, like a strong safety, maybe even a linebacker than a golfer.
VELSHI: What do you think, Patrick?
SNELL: I totally agree. I will say that Tiger Woods was always aspiring, and still is. He's always had something to aim at, always had to eclipse Jack Nicklaus, and still is. In many people's eyes, he's is trying to surpass Jack Nicklaus' all time record of majors, which is 18.
(INAUDIBLE) -- behind just a little bit. But Woods said he always had this thing, this phenomenon called Jack Nicklaus to aim at, which Nicklaus, in the latter part of his career, was just adding to his majors. But certainly when you travel around the world -- and our program airs globally -- we speak to people all the time globally. We see globally. It's all the time this ongoing, as Jimmy says, who's the best of all time, Nicklaus or Woods. So many people would say Nicklaus. A good fair few would say Woods though.
VELSHI: Patrick Snell, thank you so much. Jimmy Roberts, thank you both for you help on this story, this breaking news story about injuries that have been sustained by Tiger Woods early this morning outside his home in Windermere, Florida, outside the Orlando area.
We're going to stick with this and other stories that we're bringing you. Stay with us. You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right, we're continuing to cover the story of Tiger Woods and his injuries. We have confirmed Tiger Woods was involved in an accident. He was driving a car, a Cadillac SUV, on his own street, having emerged, according to the police report, from his driveway on his street. His car struck a fire hydrant and then struck a tree.
The address given is a couple of addresses, a couple of doors down from where he lives, might be the next door in Windermere, Florida, which is outside of Orlando. Police responded. He was then taken to Health Central Hospital, where we have a CNN journalist.
We did just speak to the mayor of Windermere, Florida, who told us that his understanding was that Tiger Woods has been released. We have no confirmation on the injuries. We are told, according to the police report -- it says right here -- I have got it in my hand. And there are little words and then you fill in the space, next to injuries on this it says serious. Next to alcohol related, it says no.
So injuries say serious, alcohol related says no. I have been told by people who know more about these things than I typically do that the fact that his injuries are serious does not mean his condition is serious. And according to the mayor of Windermere, he could have been released from hospital already.
According to one of our affiliates, the injuries include facial lacerations. Those of you who follow Tiger Woods' career -- we all sort of follow his career to some degree -- but those who follow it closely know that he was out last year with knee surgery. But we do not know what these injuries are and how they're going to affect him.
We did just hear that he was planning to play in a tournament, his own tournament in Thousand Oaks, California next Tuesday.
Let's turn to this question now -- talking about fitness and athletes -- did you eat too much for Thanksgiving, too much of Aunt Betty's stuffing, grandma's pumpkin pie? What a day for a study that shows that we're eating our way, as a nation, into a big financial hole. Are you ready for this? Because I wasn't.
Let me show you what we are paying today to treat diabetes; 113 billion dollars is the annual cost, according to the University of Chicago, 113 Billion dollars a year to treat diabetes, whose number one risk factor is being overweight.
Now here's the real shocker. Are you ready for this? By 2034, 25 years from now, that number, the annual number to treat diabetes triples. We, as a nation, will spend 336 billion dollars a year to treat diabetes, 336 billion dollars a year. That, for a matter of perspective, is more money than we have spent in total on the war in Afghanistan.
The study that came out today predicts that cases of diabetes will nearly double in the next quarter century. We'll go from about 24 million people I think now who have diabetes to almost double that. And we're going to get to the why of that. But first we want to look at these costs. And for that, we turn to Dr. Elbert Huang. He is the author of the study that appears in the magazine "Diabetes Care." Dr. Huang, thank you very much for being here.
DR. ELBERT HUANG, "DIABETES CARE": Thank you for having me.
VELSHI: First of all, the cost of treating diabetes, is that simply a measure of how many people have diabetes. So if we're going to nearly double the number of people who have diabetes, is that why it's going to cost more?
HUANG: The costs are going to increase not only because we're taking care of more people, but because they're also getting sicker at the same time. So the costs of diabetes include the medications that we take on a regular basis, but also treating the complications, like heart attacks, strokes and stage renal disease.
VELSHI: Right, because the number of people you're expecting to suffer from diabetes is almost double. It's not really fully double. Yet the costs are going to be -- you got the number of people 23.7 million. You're predicting -- the University of Chicago is predicting, in this study, 2034, which is 25 years, there will be 44.1 million. So that's less than double the number of people who will suffer from diabetes, and yet the cost is going to triple?
HUANG: That's right. The cost of diabetes are linked to how many complications you develop. And the complications of diabetes are related to how long you live with the disease. So we're predicting that in 25 years, people will not -- there will be not only more people, but many of the people with diabetes will have had it for many, many years.
VELSHI: Victims of our own success, to some degree, people with diabetes live longer or will live longer?
HUANG: That's correct.
VELSHI: What's the easiest way to cut that number. And I know most people probably glaze over when they see aggregate costs of health care, because we don't know what a billion dollars is, let alone the fact that it's going to cost us 300 some odd billion. But the bottom line is this is one of those diseases that we can easily lop off a very large proportion of the extension if we can be preventative about it.
HUANG: Well, we certainly have weapons at our disposal to try to reduce the number of people who have diabetes, but also to try to reduce these costs. The first step is probably increasing efforts to try to prevent diabetes. We can't change our age. We can't change the aging process. But we can try to shift the distribution of people who are obese and overweight down.
VELSHI: And is it pretty clear to you that that's going to really change the game, if there are fewer people who are obese?
HUANG: That could dramatically change the game. The projections that we have produced really represenent the cost of doing nothing, if we don't make any changes in our dietary habits or our exercise habits. If we don't do anything, this is what will happen. The second part is actually also trying to come up with new efficient ways of treating diabetes.
VELSHI: What's the advancements there that you're looking at? What are the logical things that we can do that are more efficient in how you treat diabetes?
HUANG: There are probably two things that I can think of. One is that,even with existing medications, if we targeted patients who are younger and have a longest history ahead of them, we can -- it turns out that if you control diabetes very early on, within the first ten years of the disease, you can significantly reduce long-term complications.
And the second, I think, thing that could happen is that we could, in the next 25 years, have new developments in medications. That's more hypothetical. We don't know what will happen down the pipeline. But both in combination could reduce diabetes care costs.
VELSHI: Dr. Elbert Huang, thanks for joining us and telling us about this. And probably a good time to think about what we can do in our own little battle to make sure we don't get diabetes,if we don't have it, and how to control it if we can. We should try and just be a little bit healthier and more fit. Dr. Huang, thank you for joining us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They clearly calculated that they were going to somehow slip into a White House state dinner, which is really a game of luck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Well, manipulating, lucky? Either way, we know their names now and that's not all. New details about the couple who crashed the White House state dinner.
And more on our breaking news this hour, the car crash involving golf superstar Tiger Woods. You're going to hear part of his most recent interview with CNN in just a moment.
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VELSHI: Major development in this breaking news story that we have been following on Tiger Woods. We now have a statement from Tiger Woods' publicist.
Listen to this. This is from Health Central Hospital and Tiger Woods' office: "Tiger Woods was in a minor car accident outside of his home last night. He was admitted, treated and released today in good condition."
There you have it. Tiger Woods has been released from hospital. He, according to his publicist, was in a minor car accident, released and treated from Health Central Hospital. The accident took place outside his home. The police report said it happened -- or at least the police report indicates a time of 2:25 a.m. outside his home. Said that he was driving a Cadillac SUV, was driving on the circle in which he lives, hit a fire hydrant then hit a tree.
Police responded first. Windermere Police took him to Health Central in Orlando, and he has been released. That is word that we got from the mayor of Windermere shortly -- a little while ago. And we just confirmed that now, that Tiger Woods has been released and has been treated. He's in good condition, according to his publicist.
If all it takes to become a reality show star is flash and nerve, Mikhail Salahi has a lock on starring in the "Real Housewives" franchise.
Despite not being on the guest list for Tuesday's White House state dinner, she and her husband Tareq Salahi, were there, getting up close to luminaries, including Vice President Joe Biden, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, as you can see from the pictures that the couple posted on Facebook.
As Mrs. Salahi glammed up for the camera, she was followed by a crew from "Bravo TV's" real housewives of D.C., which is considering her for its cast. Now, the salahis are well known to their neighbors in Virginia horse country and in the courts. The couple's name appear in more than a dozen lawsuits, some involving a feud about the family's Oasis Winery, what you're looking at there. sometimes there doing the suing, sometimes being sued. But the Salahi's grand appearance at the White House dinner raises different issues for the pair, and a security headache for the Obama administration.
The Secret Service is investigating how it happened, how did they get in, and whether criminal charges could be filed. Agents visited the Salahi family winery today. A publicist for the couple's lawyer says he, quote, "states emphatically that the Salahis did not crash this event. We look forward to setting the record straight very soon," end quote.
We look forward to setting the record straight too very soon.
Coming up next, They get paid more in one year's bonuses than some Americans may earn in their lives. Up next, I'm talking Wall Street bonuses with a guy who has been up close and personal with a billionaire banker. He's the author of "Last Man Standing."
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VELSHI: OK, let me play a little more of that cockpit audio for you. We played some earlier in the show. We're talking about that now infamous wayward flight that a Northwest crew flew last month. It was supposed to land in Minneapolis. They realized over Wisconsin that they overshot their destination and needed to turn back.
Today, the conversation between the pilots and ground controllers was made public.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Minneapolis North West 188 --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Minneapolis, Center, go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. We got distracted and we've overblown Minneapolis. We are overhead Eau Claire and would like to make a 180 and do arrival from Eau Claire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, 188, ground, turn to the right, to a heading of one zero zero.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: All right. Stay right there. Plenty more to tell you about those recordings, plenty more audio to play for you. And, yes, there's an update on how Northwest airlines and the FAA handled this incident, and the pilots who say they were, quote, distracted, end quote. Jean Meserve has a full report for you. Tune into "THE SITUATION ROOM" right here after this program right here on CNN. >
Also ahead on "THE SITUATION ROOM," the latest on the Tiger Woods car crash that I've been telling you about this hour. His publicist has just issued a statement, along with the hospital he was in, saying he has been released and was in good condition. We are going to stay on top of that. And finally, so many of you have responded to our Tweets, our messages about Wall Street bankers and bonuses. Well, a guy you're looking at right there knows a lot about this. He's been up close and personal with some of the people who control our banking system and make a lot of money. We're going to hear from him, why they make what they make and whether they should, when we come back.
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VELSHI: Well, a bonus, by any other name, is still a bonus. Goldman Sachs is due to give out 20 billion dollars in year end checks. This year, Goldman is calling the mega pay-outs, quote, discretionary compensation instead of bonuses. Others folks might call them incentives. The folks on Main Street may have another name for them, outrageous.
So what gives? Are the masters of the universe living on another planet. Well, I happen to know a guy who spent time with masters of the universe. Over the years, Duff McDonald, who is a contributor for "New York Magazine" has studied these people very closely. In fact, he's written a book called "Last Man Standing, the Assent of Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan Chase." And the name alludes to the fact that Jamie Dimon is perhaps the least tainted, and the one who has come through this battle in the best form. I don't know if a lot of my viewers know a great deal about him. In a nutshell, why did you write this book? And who is Jamie Dimon?
DUFF MCDONALD, AUTHOR OF "LAST MAN STANDING": The reason I wrote this book is because as pretty much every bank you could name on Wall Street was teetering on the edge of the brink and about going out of existence in the 2007/'08 crisis, JP Morgan emerged stronger from the crowd and, in fact, ended up ahead of the pack. And all due to the leadership of a gay named Jamie Dimon.
VELSHI: As valid as that may be, do you get pelted with eggs when you tell people that you wrote a book about -- that actually speaks in positive terms about a banker?
MCDONALD: Yeah. You know, it's interesting, it does not seem like it was the right time to -- to say anything positive about a banker. But I think what people need to remember is that not all these people are the same and not all these people have done anything wrong. JP Morgan, in particular, was acting far more prudently than most of the competition coming into this crisis and coming through the crisis.
VELSHI: But, boy, it's fashionable these days to be generally mad. I remember reading an article you wrote -- I think it was one of the finest articles I've ever read, particularly on the issue of bonuses, a few years ago. You understand that this is a structure. You understand that this is how Wall Street works. You also understand that they don't get what Main Street is all that angry about.
MCDONALD: Oh, well as regards Goldman Sachs, which is what that article was about -- it was in "New York Magazine" a couple years ago -- I think the public is under the mistaken impression that people at Goldman actually care what anybody thinks. It's a private company. It doesn't have a consumer brand. So they are not losing any customers in the process off angering people. And these are guys who eat what they kill. So as far as they are concerned, they made the money, they are paying themselves the money.
VELSHI: Do you think that's different at a place like JP Morgan Chase?
MCDONALD: Oh, absolutely. You know, it's not that the leadership at JP Morgan is underpaid. But they do have retail brands. They got the Chase Bank brand in particular. So they are a lot more sensitive to the optics of this stuff. And at least in terms of admitting and acting as if they were some sort of apology necessary for where we came to, they were way out ahead of that and way out ahead of people like Goldman.
VELSHI: Tell me something. Make your best argument to me, if there's an argument to be made or tell me if there isn't one, about why the general bonus structure on Wall Street should continue in this environment.
MCDONALD: Well, you know, it's interesting. I always thought bonuses were obscene myself. But I think the people that need to respond to it and the people who can respond to it are shareholders. And it was always funny to me that when Goldman went public, you had these shareholders that were watching the management of the bank take pretty much the entirety of the firm's profits and divvy it up among the employees, as opposed to among shareholders which is the way it tends to go in publicly traded corporations.
It's interesting that in the last week or so we heard some rumblings from Goldman's own shareholders. Whether or not the government should get involved in setting pay; I think I come out on the no side on that, except in the case where, you know, where government is actually a lender to places like Citigroup or AIG. But then it's not the government acting in terms of setting compensation, it's a huge lender acting in terms of setting compensation.
VELSHI: Let me ask you something. I don't know if this is fortuitous or you have any insight into this. But you've written a back about a guy named Jamie Dimon, whom a lot of people don't know, but in the last couple of weeks -- and I know you were working on your book a lot longer than that -- but in the last couple of weeks there are people who said Jamie Dimon might become a name very, very familiar to Americans, because he might be someone considered to replace the current Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
MCDONALD: I get into that at the end of the book. Jamie is one of -- he's one of those guys who is at a point in his career where he has to wonder what's next. You know, I did this. I did that. I did that. Government -- public service is something he's definitely thought about. And if that call actually came, I would not be surprised if he took it.
VELSHI: Yeah.
Duff, always good to talk to you. You're a great author and I wish you well. Thanks for shedding some light on this. We'll talk more about bonuses and things like that, because that topic is not going away any time soon. Duff McDonald, author of "Last Man Standing," the story of Jamie Dimon and the ascent of Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan Chase. That's it for us. Thanks for joining me, sitting in for Rick Sanchez. Stay tuned to CNN. Suzanne Malveaux is leading the ship at "THE SITUATION ROOM."
