‘Elderly’ driver crashes through patio area of Dixie’s Diner twice in one year

A pickup truck crashed into the patio area of Dixie’s Diner. The owner estimates the cost of repairs will be $6,000. | Photo courtesy Thomas Hersh, video by Jordan Wood, EastIdahoNews.com

IDAHO FALLS — A section of the patio area of Dixie’s Diner was destroyed Tuesday morning after a driver drove a pickup truck through it.

Thomas Hersh, owner and manager of Dixie’s Diner at 2150 Channing Way, says an “elderly” man drove his truck up over a cinderblock barrier, destroying a section of the restaurant’s patio area and hitting another car.

“He took out the wall, and he took out one of our big planter boxes,” says Hersh.

Idaho Falls Police Department spokesperson Jessica Clements says officers were called to the restaurant around 9 a.m., and the truck had run over a “decorative wall.”

A tow truck was called to haul the truck off of the damaged wall, Clements says.

Hersh says this happened almost exactly a year ago with the same driver. Both times, the driver said he thought he was pressing on the brake when it was actually the gas.

“I just think people need to be a little bit more aware of what’s going on with people that they care for and that they love,” says Hersh. “The fact that a person like this is really a danger, driving a big truck. If somebody had been standing there at that time, he would have killed them.”

Hersh estimates that the damages cost him around $4,000 last year, and he thinks the damage will be around $6,000 this time.

“The last time he did it, he went through the other side of the wall, so we had that all repaired, and then he just went through the other corner of the wall,” says Hersh.