Kyle Shanahan says car crash was his fault, accident report was wrong - ESPN

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan wanted to make clear that he was at fault for the car accident that left him with multiple serious injuries two weeks ago.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the crash, Shanahan spent about 30 minutes with a handful of Bay Area reporters speaking about a California Highway Patrol collision report that he says erroneously assigned blame to a 21-year-old woman for the accident.

«I hit her,» Shanahan said Tuesday. «I don't know why it was reported that way [on the collision report database]. The police report doesn't say that.»

Shanahan then gave his full version of the events that led up to and through the collision between his Tesla Model S and the other driver's SUV — a crash that left Shanahan with a concussion, a broken left hand, nose and three ribs as well as 40 stitches above his right eye.

«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's 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, and they broke my nose and then they said the visor really gashed me.… I took my eyes off the road looking for my phone, and my car veered into someone.

»It's one of those roads where there's no forgiveness.… When I hit her, the impact was just so, I'll just never forget how violent it was."

The crash, which happened at 6:12 p.m. on July 14, took place near the intersection of Alma Street and Hamilton Avenue in Palo Alto, California. According to the collision report, Shanahan was traveling south with the woman traveling north at the time of the collision.

Shanahan said he was