Woman exits vehicle in drive thru, car crashes over Chick-fil-A retaining wall

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, N.C. (WECT) - A Wilmington woman is facing a Driving While Impaired charge tonight, after losing control of her vehicle in the Chick-fil-A drive thru. The accident happened Monday morning at the restaurant chain’s Monkey Junction location on College Road.

Video of the incident has gone viral. The 30-second clip has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on TikTok and Facebook.

The video, taken by another person in the drive thru line, starts as the woman is getting out of the driver’s side of her car, apparently trying to get condiments off a cart by the drive thru window. Almost instantly, her car begins rolling forward. As she runs beside the vehicle, which is travelling through the parking lot and towards a busy section of College Road, Chick-fil-A employees can be heard saying “Get your car!” and “This is why we’re concerned, ma’am.”

An employee suggests calling the police just as the woman’s car careens over a retaining wall, crashing into a ditch below. “Oh God! Please tell her to stop!” an employee says as she watches events unfold. A young man in a Chick-fil-A uniform runs towards the woman, who reportedly was able to get back into the car just before it crashed.

Family members say the woman’s vehicle was totaled in the crash, but she was not injured. They say when she was putting her drinks into the car’s cup holder, she accidentally knocked the gear shift into neutral without realizing it.

Highway Patrol confirms they responded to the crash at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, May 9. Family members who reached out to WECT say the woman in the video was charged with DWI, but not arrested. They questioned how she would have been able to get back inside a moving car if she had been impaired. They also said her blood alcohol level was .00. She was cited for failing a field sobriety test.

Family members say she has struggled with addiction in the past, but had been clean for months when she crashed her car. They say the ugly comments about the crash on social media have been difficult for her to deal with.

Chick-fil-A managers at the restaurant where the crash happened declined to comment for this story. When a reporter thanked them for their time, the employee who answered the phone responded, “My pleasure. Have a great day.”

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