In one of the wildest and most terrifying videos we’ve ever seen, a Texas teen in a Chevrolet pickup was tossed around in a tornado. He was able to drive off in the truck, but thanks to a smart dealer in Fort Worth, the kid who can count his blessings is going to get a brand new pickup.
16-year-old Riley Leon was driving home from an interview at Whataburger on March 21, KHOU reports, when he ended up in the middle of a tornado outbreak in Central Texas. In a clip posted to Twitter by storm chaser Brian Emfinger, you can see the red pickup being tossed and spinning around on its side before somehow coming to rest on its wheels.
Omg… just going thru my video. This is a story about a red truck and a tornado…. I CANNOT believe they drove away like that. #txwx #tornado pic.twitter.com/8h0nD88xFv
— Brian Emfinger (@brianemfinger) March 22, 2022
“When I landed on my wheels my hands landed on my lap and I saw everything and I was like probably nothing happened,” said Leon.
“I wasn’t scared that much, but it was a shocking moment for me,” said Leon.
The young driver pulled over after driving out of the center of a tornado (we really can’t stress that enough) to find the truck dented and scratched, with all of the windows broken.
“It broke me down seeing my hard work is gone,” Leon said. “It is family-owned but my dad passed it to me but I paid him off.”
Because there’s really no alternative when you find free advertising like this, Bruce Lowrie Chevrolet of Fort Worth has contacted Leon and is giving him a brand new Chevrolet Silverado pickup. Here’s hoping the dealer hangs onto the trashed truck and puts it in the showroom.
The U.S. National Weather Service says the storm was an EF-2, with winds in excess of 210 km/h.
