UPDATE, Tuesday, 1:40 p.m.: Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan told the press today (July 28) that he momentarily took his eyes off the road when his cellphone fell between the seats of his Tesla and struck a Mercedes SUV in Palo Alto on July 14.
Shanahan said he was upset that the other driver was blamed for making an unsafe turn.
“I hit her,” Shanahan said. “I don’t know why it was reported that way.”
“I was going 20 miles an hour,” Shanahan said. “I was not on my phone, but I dropped my phone, and it was stuck in my seats. It was on my lap, and it slid off, and I went down to look for it, and took my eyes off the road for two seconds, and as I was coming up, the airbags hit me in my face.”
Shanahan was seriously injured and the other driver, a 21-year-old woman, suffered minor injuries.
“It just crushed me that the (other driver) gets blamed for it,” said Shanahan.
Shanahan, 46, sustained a concussion as well as a broken nose, ribs and left hand. He was taken to Stanford Hospital. He was in the hospital for eight to 10 hours and underwent plastic surgery.
Tuesday, July 28: CHP files show that Kyle Shanahan was holding and using a cellphone when he got into an accident with an SUV at Hamilton Avenue and Alma Street on July 14.
The accident sent the 49ers coach to the hospital with a broken nose, three broken ribs, a broken hand, a severe concussion and facial cuts requiring 40 stitches.
While Palo Alto police had been tight-lipped about the accident, the new information about Shanahan’s cellphone use and other details were found in the CHP’s California Crash Reporting System database.
The database said Shanahan was driving south on Alma Street in a black 2023 Tesla Model S when the other vehicle, a blue 2025 Mercedes-Benz GLC 300 SUV, turned across his path to head north on Hamilton, resulting in a head-on collision.
Shanahan was not ruled to be at fault for the crash because the other driver, a 21-year-old woman, swerved into his lane. Both drivers were wearing seat belts, and both of their airbags deployed, but only Shanahan suffered serious injuries, according to the report. Neither one had been drinking, the CHP said.
The CHP database said the driver of the SUV made an unsafe turn, but neither driver was cited.
The CHP report indicates that Shanahan violated Vehicle Code 23123.5(a), which says it’s illegal to hold and operate a cell phone while driving. But the website also says that Shanahan wasn’t cited for this violation. It’s considered a minor violation, carrying a $20 fine for first-time offenders.
The information from the CHP database was first reported on Monday by sportswriter Grant Cohen of 49ers On SI.
ORIGINAL REPORT, SATURDAY, JULY 25, 10:02 A.M.: Niners coach Kyle Shanahan suffered a broken nose, three broken ribs, a broken hand, a severe concussion and facial cuts requiring over 40 stitches when he collided with an SUV at Alma Street and Hamilton Avenue in Palo Alto, according to police.
An ambulance took him to the hospital after the crash at 6:12 p.m. on July 14. The driver of the SUV was not injured.
No one has been cited in the collision and drugs and alcohol are not believed to be involved, according to police.
“Coach Shanahan will participate in team activities on a limited basis at the start of training camp while he recovers,” the team said in a statement issued Saturday (July 25). “Coach Shanahan and the 49ers organization would like to sincerely thank all first responders involved for their efforts and care.”
The Niners will conduct their first practice on Sunday (July 26) with assistant head coach/offensive line coach Chris Foerster running the team, along with coordinators Klay Kubiak, Raheem Morris and Brant Boyer.
Shanahan is entering his 10th season as 49ers coach and is one of the most highly regarded coaches in the game. His team has made two trips to the Super Bowl following the 2019 and 2023 seasons and made two additional appearances in the NFC title game in the 2021 and ’22 seasons.
How do you have a high speed collision, at a controlled intersection, and nobody is cited? Either an oncoming car crossed the double yellow line, or somebody ran the light. Either case would seem to earn a ticket. Are there other possibilities?
Sounds like a rear-ender and his face went through the windshield. Might be punishment enough.
20 mph is NOT high speed and Coach said his phone slid off his lap and went between the space in the side of the seat and he looked down for a couple seconds and he went into oncoming lane and hit the car ,Coach admits it was HIS fault..
Coach is a stand up guy! Didn’t let a lawyer do the talking.
MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY!!
why did it take 2 weeks for this to be published? where’s the dash cam video? was coach wearing a seat belt or are the injuries from the air bags? Are the electronics of the vehicle being investigated? COVERUP?
Routine collision reports take time to finalize, approve, and process into public record databases. The gap between an event and news coverage is standard reporting lag, not suppression.
Additionally, the 49ers are the one that advised the public because their training camp was starting. Better for them to release the info then the police department.
Shanahan released his own statement to the media: “This is the last time I use Tiger Woods as my chauffeur.”
Wonder if the 49ers and the Police agreed to keep this all hushed up? Why wasn’t word of Shanahan’s crash released immediately to the public? Did the police want to avoid the impact it would have on preseason practices? Was the NFL involved in all of this? The Post needs to push the Police and city manager for answers!!!
It’s no bodies business it’s between the two involved parties
Sounds like a coverup. Palo Alto authorities protecting one of their elite buddies, maybe,
But par for the course for PAPD.
The speed limit is 25 mph at that intersection. I’m assuming that Shanahan hit the Mercedes full on without any braking.
Agencies only issue immediate public announcements when there is an active safety threat, a prolonged road block, or a need for public assistance (e.g., searching for witnesses in a hit-and-run). Standard collisions are recorded in everyday operational logs, not press releases.
Why was he holding and using a cell phone if all modern cars have Bluetooth? He probably could have avoided the other driver if he hadn’t been distracted.
Even Bluetooth can be distracting. It frees your hands, but the conversation itself can be very distracting. If you need to make/take a call or send a text, pull over. People do it all the time
Ticket him! Distracted driving kills.
When airbags deploy, it happens quickly. Sounds like Shanahan had his head turned, perhaps lowered looking for his smartphone when the airbags deployed with the headon collision. The impact of the airbags is like a powerful punch and if his head was not looking ahead, it could lead to his condition.
Yeah, most likely the air bags did all the damage causing the concussion, broken nose, ribs and hand for what was a relatively minor crash. Air bags are explosive and in some cases, lethal devices. They can really mess up your face. The benefit of wearing seat belts is to limit the damage caused by an exploding air bag. Also, in some vehicles, there is no back seat, so if you’re going to have a child in the passenger seat, you need to be able to disable the passenger side air bags.
At least he owned up