According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the incident took place just as 20-year-old Charles Wood Jr. was trying to grab his order from an employee running the drive-thru window at the fast-food restaurant.
Having stationed his vehicle a little too far from the window, Wood, who had his car shifter set on reverse, mistakenly hit the gas pedal as he was leaning out of his car door to get his food. Wood was subsequently left pinned between a tree and his car.
The mishap took place at roughly 10 p.m. local time.
Suffering from serious injuries to his head, neck, torso and legs, Wood was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
In related Jack in the Box news, Guy Eugene Alford, a Long Beach Community College football player, was identified this week as the victim of a deadly shooting incident at one of the restaurant's California locations, local news station KABC reported.
Alford, who was pronounced dead at the scene on early Wednesday, had been sitting inside his blue Chevy Impala in the restaurant's parking lot when the shooting took place. According to NBC Los Angeles, the 20-year-old football player managed to get out of his car before collapsing onto the ground.
"You know who you are. You know what happened," Guy Alford Jr., Alford's father, told the station of the shooter. "I just want some answers."
An investigation has been launched into the deaths of both Alford and Wood. No motive has been determined in Alford's case.