plus new details today on the couple who crashed the white house state dinner. out here you really feel like a caged animal and it's the polar bears that are looking in on you. >> 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. and the national conversation for november 272009 starts now. >> i'm ali velshi sitting in for rick sanchez, we will bring you all those stories, but now tiger woods in an accident and in serious condition from an accident near his home in florida. 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 -- with 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 is hi parentally very close to where the accident took place. here's what i've 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 p.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 on 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're showing you the pictures at the residence, we'll show you that again. the driver had just pulled out of the driveway at his residence located at 6843 deacon circle. v 1 struck a fire hydrant and then it struck a tree at 6343 -- the driver was transported to central hospital. the injuries are being described to us as serious. we do not know what his condition is, 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've got in my hands, 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 axle was born on february 8 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, the report says under the box it 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 -- i'm just hearing from my producer that we have confirmed that tiger woods we mains in hospital, he was transferred to something called health central hospital. near his home in florida. we are going to update this story as information is coming in now. you can stay with us on cnn and we will continue our coverage with the situation surrounding tiger woods. to deep-fat-fry their turkey. 15 succeeded in setting their houses on fire. at christmas, there was a lot of driving... over the river and through the woods. and a little bit of skidding on the ice... and taking out grandma's garage door. so while you're celebrating, allstate will be standing by. trouble never takes a holiday. neither should your insurance. that's allstate's stand. are you in good hands? ♪ 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. we'll 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 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 down deacon circle, it hit a fire hydrant, the vehicle then struck a tree. 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 his condition is not necessarily serious. i don't want to say that it's not serious. there's a distinction between those two things and we do not know that his condition is serious, we know that his injuries are serious. he has suffered facial lacerations. 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 conditions, but we have affiliates on the way, reporters on the story and we will bring you everything there is to know about this accident and the condition that tiger woods is n stay with us with this, momentarily i will be speaking with somebody who interviewed tiger woods and knows a lot about him very shortly. another developing story this hour, the pair of pilot who is said they were distracted, disstraktsed, remember this? the northwest airlines flight last month that overshot its destination in minneapolis because the pilots were, quote, distracted. 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, you have heard them. you're about to hear them. roll it. >> northwest 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. >> so you want 33-45 northwest to 1-88 to come to your frequency? >> northwest 15-10 if you can raise him on that frequency, bring him over this frequency. >> are you talk to that -- >> they took nor dorks o about it. >> i heard some chitchat about that. >> 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. finally, finally, a voice from the cockpit. listen to this. >> minneapolis, northwest 188. >> minneapolis center, go ahead. >> roger, we got distracted and we have overflown minneapolis. we are overhead eau claire and we would like to make a 180 and do arifle from eau claire. >> northwest 188, roger, turn to the right to a heading of 100. >> northwest flight 188 left san diego, destination was minneapolis. the pilot and co-pilot say they were using their lap top computers and didn't notice that they had flown past minneapolis. 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. minneapolis center, that's control asks, i have just had to verify that the cockpit is secure. the northwest pilot now turning the plane around now responds is 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 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'll all be paying for it. that's coming up next, 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'll have it to you shortly. (announcer) we understand. you need to save money. but aleve can last 12 hours. and aleve was proven to work better on pain than tylenol 8-hour. so why am i still thinking about this? - how are you? - good, how are you? aleve. proven better on pain. 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 have pictures there of the area outside his home from our affiliate wesh. we also have 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 who was in the car with him. we know that the police report, or at least the release that we have been given by the florida highway patrol indicates 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, then struck a tree located a little down the street from his residence. the driver was transported, the driver being tiger woods was transported to health central hospital. let's go to health central hospital right now. a cnn journalist is there at the hospital. john? >> reporter: hi, ali, i just arrived moments ago and the outside of the hospital is lined with local reporters from the local stationings 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 and the release stated that tiger woods injuries were serious but we don't know his actual condition, we haven't been able to confirm those conditions and the fact that he's still here in the hospital. but all indications seem to be that he remain at this location, but we haven't been able to confirm that for sure. >> we're going to dig a littlejohn, into tlittle, john, into the distinction between his injuries being serious, and his injuries being serious. people around here who know about that are telling us that there's a distinction between the two. facial last rations, we don't know if that means his condition is serious. tiger woods just recovered last year from his knee injury. tell us a little bit about those of us who don't know the geography all that well, where the hospital is versus orlando and where his house. >> 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. >> 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 bruen is the mayor of windermere, florida. mayor gary bruen are you on the line with us? do you know if tiger woods is still in the hospital. >> it's my understanding that he has been released? >> so you think he's been released, na's what you have heard? >> yes. >> we don't know what the story is, we have got our journalist at the hospital who's going to try to confirm that. you understand that he's been released, you have that on good authority? >> yes, i do. >> do you know if he's been released and headed home or where he's going? >> i can't answer. >> what do you know about this situation? >> well, an accident occurred about 2:30 this morning. windermere police were first upon the scene. we did 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. where he was treated and i'm told that he was released. >> do you know what the call was when its came in that our police responded to? >> i do not know specifically, i would assume because of it going out would have been 911 and we have mutual aid meaning whoever's closest to the scene would arrive. and we were closest to the season because i can actually say they're maybe two minutes from our police station and that would have been followed up with orange county who would have had jurisdiction in that area and would have taken over the investigation. >> what do you know about what happened? 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. >> that is the same information that i am getting, yes. >> do you have any idea as to what was behind that? >> no, not at all. >> it says charges pending, i guess that's sort of normal for a police report if there's no charges. >> i think it's nothing more than an accident, you know, but from that standpoint, they have got -- they have to let everything run its full course and run the investigation to see what was involved. >> and as far as you understand, is that investigation is active at the moment and they're out there trying to figure out what happened? >> i don't know that it will probably be an ongoing investigation and that can take, you know, a number of days for it to come to conclusion. >> is health central hospital the logical place that they would have transported somebody to that location if they were involved in an accident? >> absolutely, health central is the hospital that serves windermere, ocoee and the entire county. >> so mayor there's nothing about the situation that you know that seems unusual? >> absolutely not anything that i'm aware of, it just seems like a very strange accident that occurr 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. >> we hope you're right about that. >> mayor gary bruhn of windermere, florida. john cowls, our platform journalist is where tiger woods was taken after this accident. 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 to get to the bottom of that right now. we also have somebody who has had a very recent conversation with tiger woods. we'll continue to bring you this story, this breaking news on tiger woods right after this. 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[ male announcer ] relax. pam helps you pull it off. a breaking news story we're following 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 drive of a 2009 cadillac suv, he was then transported to hospital with injuries as 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 deacon circle and struck a fire hydrant and then struck a tree. we just spoke to the mayor of windermere. i just wanted to get a feel of where windermere is. >> very close to kissimmee and the disney world area. on that picture, above the word b there, you see those barricades, and on google earth, i was able to see that at some point there really was a fire hydrant there. 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 proceeded off into the neighbor's yard. i'll take you back in to windermere, florida. we'll zoom into this map. just stay right there on that map and we will fly in. there we go, right in the mid of orlando, right there is the town, right there is tiger woods residence and also the accident location. so literally, alley, 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. if you kind of zoom out a little bit, very exclusive area, completely gated. don't try to go there because you can't there. golf course all around these lakes. we're going to get to bay hill and then we're going to get to windermere. as we zoom farther and farther out, here's orlando, you'll be able to see the runways right through there and that's it. and as we keep zooming out from the middle part. there's tampa right through here and there's central florida. >> we're going to get some sense of it, we just heard from the mayor or windermere. he said he was transported as health -- we have a report from the mayor, he says he understands that tiger woods has been released from hospital, we haven't confirmed that just yet. so we're going to stay on that. chad, thank you for that. i want to take y