Drivers keep falling off Captain D’s drive-thru in Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Some customers at a Captain D's restaurant are getting more than food at the drive-thru window; they're also getting their vehicles stuck by taking a wrong turn out.

This phenomenon happens occasionally at the restaurant on Fillmore Street, just west of Union Boulevard.

Employees say the situation happened twice Sunday; instead of turning left at the drive-thru window and following the lane onto Fillmore, vehicles turned right, went over a curb became stuck on a three-foot concrete ledge above the sidewalk.

In most cases, a tow truck is summoned to get the vehicle back on the ground, but sometimes people will push the vehicles out of harm's way.

Vehicles make the wrong turn despite signs clearly indicating the proper direction, although Lester Nowell -- the store's owner -- says those signs are often knocked down by drivers.

"I don't think it happens as often as people think it does," he said. "It's happened maybe five or six times that I can remember. But it may have happened other times that I'm unaware of. I didn't know it happened twice Sunday."

Witnesses say the mishaps have been a common sight for a decade or more.

"One time, a driver thought he was supposed to turn right instead of left," says Jermey Williams, a former Captain D's employee. "Another time, a woman fell asleep at the wheel. And another time, the driver was drunk."

One resident, Caleb Mandry, has created a Captain D's Drive-Thru Survivors page on Facebook that has gathered 1,000 members in two days; members post photos of and share stories of similar incidents at the location.

Mandry says it's a humorous look at how often drivers make the wrong turn in the drive-thru, but the page is likely more embarrassing to the victims.

"Some people want the ledge removed, but I don't," he said. "It's been there for years. I grew up in that neighborhood and remember cars getting stuck all the time."

Nowell says city codes limit what he can do to change the layout of his property and help drivers avoid going over the ledge; his advice to drivers is to simply pay closer attention.