Date of Interview: March 10, 2007
Time of Interview: 8:38 p.m.
Location: Orlando Office of the Florida Highway Patrol
Police Officer: For the record, please state your full name.
Arjun Singh Atwal.
And you're a professional golfer for the PGA. Is that correct?
PGA Tour, yes.
PGA Tour. Sorry.
Yes.
Okay. Tell me what you observed and what happened today.
Well, basically, I made a left out of Chase Road onto 535.
Okay.
And I had a white Mercedes behind me. And he got really close to me when we were...we were definitely going over 55 miles an hour.
What lane was this?
I was in the left lane.
Left lane?
And he was behind me.
Okay.
And then we got around to this corner right here, like just before this turn...
Okay.
...and he went into the right lane.
Okay.
And the next thing I know, I see him in our rearview mirror. He's going off this road. And that's where I hit my brakes up here somewhere.
Okay.
And my car — well, I panicked, because I saw his car go off the road...I hit my brakes. And my car skidded and went off...into the grass. Hit a few of those trees on the way...
Okay.
...and got to the other side of the road. Like, ended up on the other side. And I lost control of my car.
Okay. And did you see where it...at the time you were losing control of your car, did you see where his car was going at the time?
No. No. I couldn't.
Okay.
'Cause I was — my car was basically spinning.
Okay. And you said you panicked. So did you hit the gas or hit the brake hard or jerk the wheel?
No, I — I tried to just, you know, like, turn...
Veer to the left?
Yeah. You know, 'cause I saw him go this way. So I thought, you know, you know, there must be something wrong...
Something was terribly wrong. As Atwal's car spun across the median, the Mercedes flew 30 feet off an embankment before cartwheeling over a barbed wire fence, through a cow pasture and into a tree that ripped out the vehicle's rear axle. When the car finally came to rest on another barbed wire fence nearly 300 yards from where the driver had lost control, it looked as though it had been steamrolled. The driver's-side seatbelt was still buckled and a series of air bags had deployed, but the driver was contorted and bleeding from his ears. Forty minutes later he was dead.
Those are the unassailable facts in this tragedy. But how it began and how it has evolved are the elements and emotions that only the survivor can know.
This is his story.
