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Look, Chick-Fil-A’s drive-through is fast, but it doesn’t need to be so fast that folks are flipping their trucks. A Dodge Caliber came into the drive-through ready for chicken – a little too ready – when it smashed into a pickup truck, flipping the truck and the caliber up on top of a fence.  Let’s see how this chicken catastrophe happened. 

Chaos at the Chick-Fil-A drive through.
Chick-Fil-A drive through | ABC News 4

What happened at the Chick-Fil-A drive-through?

According to CarScoops, the Chick-Fil-A drive-through in question is the one in Florence, South Carolina, about 65 miles north of Myrtle Beach. Allegedly, the driver of the Dodge Caliber blasted through a stop sign, crossing an intersection, hit an embankment, and only came to rest after hitting the truck hard enough to flip it over. 

The spokesperson for the police department, Captain Mike Brandt, says that the driver of the Caliber was charged with disregarding a stop sign.

CarScoops says that the driver of the Caliber was transported to the hospital after the crash but did not sustain any life-threatening injuries. Local news reports also say that a passenger from the Caliber was “pulled from the wreckage.” 

CarScoops also reports that the pickup truck driver walked away from the crash without serious injury. That is a remarkable thing considering how hard the Dodge Caliber must have hit the truck in order to roll it over. 

Are there driving laws in drive-throughs? 

You can go your life without ever wondering if drive-through lines have traffic laws, and then something like this happens, and you gotta know. Strangely, there don’t seem to be any officially established drive-through-specific laws. That could be why we got folks flipping cars at Chick-Fil-A. However, there are things we have come to believe are socially acceptable things to do in a drive-through.

Drive-through etiquette 

As stated before, there aren’t any kind of uniform drive-through traffic laws. That said, there are some bits of drive-through etiquette that we all adhere to naturally. 

One of the main ones that we don’t all do but should be using the preview menu. Most drivers pull straight up to the menu with the microphone. Why take the workers’ time asking everyone in the car what they want? Look at the first menu, then pull up. It’s better this way. 

Another easy one is to simply follow directions. Often, drive-through windows will have posted directions. This might help move things along, especially in a Chick-Fil-A type spot with multiple lines. 

Another bit of etiquette most of us do without thinking about it is leaving enough space between you and the car in front of you. This is simply a polite way to behave in traffic, and we should all do it more often. 

It’s unlikely that any etiquette could have prevented this accident at Chick-Fil-A. There’s not much you can do when someone runs a stop sign.