Kyle Shanahan is lucky to be alive after a serious car accident earlier this summer.
The San Francisco 49ers head coach was involved in a serious car accident back in July. The son of the legendary NFL coach Mike Shanahan caused a car accident with a young woman that left him with broken ribs, a broken nose, a broken left hand, facial lacerations and a concussion. Kyle Shanahan's close friend, Chris Simms, admitted that the NFL head coach nearly lost his eye.
"When you first see it, and it's fresh, and some of the cuts are still wide open, I mean, it's jarring -- it's jarring," Simms said on "PFT Live."
"He was this close to maybe losing his right eye, right? The scar is so big right here. So all that stuff was just crazy to see, and of course, I was thinking of my friend. But yeah, it's tough."
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Shanahan was driving his Tesla on autopilot mode when the crash occurred. He dropped his phone and lost control of the car. He's unsure if he knocked off autopilot or if it malfunctioned.
But Shanahan is now changing his mindset.
NFL coach will be more careful moving forward
"When you're going at 20 miles an hour, and you're on autopilot, I honestly have zero worries," Shanahan told reporters this weekend. "I have so much trust in that stuff. That was a good lesson that you can't ever have zero worries. I think it definitely could be an example for a lot of people."
He's still a lover of Teslas, but he's going to be more careful.
"Dropping a phone, it falling all the way to my back seat to where I have to fully take my eyes off the road, it's something that I normally wouldn’t do," Shanahan said. "I've had autopilot for nine years, so I'm pretty comfortable with it. Who knows what happened when I turned around. Whether it malfunctioned or whether I knocked it off, that's something I don't know yet.
"But regardless, it is always your fault, whether you're on autopilot or not. You can't take your eyes off the road. It's a partnership driving. You don't just turn it over to a computer. It's a good lesson, no matter how comfortable I am with that, that I believe someday could save my life or someone else's. It's really helped me have perspective on that stuff."
The 49ers are scheduled to open the season on Sept. 10 against the Rams.
