Sensational video of a red pickup truck's remarkable encounter with a powerful tornado in Texas went viral on Tuesday and now the teenager who was driving it has described what it was like.
Published Mar. 22, 2022 10:34 AM EDT | Updated Mar. 24, 2022 3:57 PM EDT
A young truck driver in Elgin, Texas, accidentally was treated to the ride of his life after he drove directly through the funnel of a damaging EF2 tornado on Monday. Days later, the 16-year-old who was behind the wheel spoke out to local media about his close call with the violent twister.
Just before crossing the road, the tornado destroyed a mobile home, injuring one and sending debris and dust from the house up into the air and across the highway. As the twister churned toward the highway, little was in its path other than a lone red truck and its driver.
The truck, a red 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 driven by a boy named Riley Leon, was quickly enveloped by the twisting winds of the tornado as it crossed the highway in front of storm chaser Brian Emfinger.
As power lines in the path of the tornado sparked and buckled due to the high winds, the truck was shoved over onto its side. With the truck fully on its side, the winds managed to spin the vehicle a full 360 before somehow flipping the truck back onto all four wheels, all while whipping around large debris from the mobile home, trees and power lines.
Leon sounded cool and collected as he recounted the astounding moment on Wednesday morning.
“I wasn’t scared like that much,” Leon said, according to Good Morning America. “But, yeah, it was, like, a shocking moment for me.”
Later, in an interview with a local TV station, Leon discussed the brush with disaster, along with what has ensued, in greater detail.
“It happened in the blink of an eye and everything was going fast,” Leon said with a smile on his face during an interview with KVUE.
Riley Leon's red pickup truck was thrown on its side before being flipped back onto its four wheels. Leon drove off safely with only minor injuries. (Brian Emfinger)
“I didn’t feel it, I didn’t [see] it,” he said. “Supposedly there were sirens going on, but I didn’t hear it …. When I landed on my wheels, my hands just landed on my lap and I saw everything and I was like ’probably nothing happened.’”
But after driving a bit farther, Leon said he finally pulled over to take a look at the truck. There, he saw the numerous scratches, dents and fragments of glass from the shattered windows.
According to Leon, the truck has been owned by his family for more than a decade and was passed down from his father. His brother told KVUE that he recognized the truck right away when he saw the video on Facebook.
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And as for his newfound fame among his peers? The teenager said the viral incident brought on a new nickname.
“They broadcasted the interview at school and that’s when everybody found out,” he said with a laugh. “And that’s when everyone started calling me tornado boy.”
Fellow driver Ruben Briones, who later helped the driver, also said Leon was “in shock” after the event. Briones told KXAN that Leon, who is from Manor, left the damaged truck in Elgin.
Photos of the pummeled vehicle show just how viciously the tornado impacted the truck. Dozens of scratches and dents blanket the entire driver side of the red truck, while a basketball-sized indentation sits just behind the backseat door.
“He was in shock, he was crying,” Briones said. “He told me it was scary.”
Commander Aaron Crim of the Elgin Police Department said Leon only suffered minor scrapes and cuts on his left arm.
"I CANNOT believe they drove away like that," Emfinger tweeted, reacting to the dramatic footage he caught.
The driver, whom Emfinger estimated to be a 16- to 17-year-old boy, kept driving down the road after the unbelievably close encounter with the tornado. Emfinger did stop the truck and give the boy his phone so that he could call his parents, according to reporting from the Fort-Worth Star Telegram.
Leon's newly-coined nickname isn't the only big change to his life since his brush with the tornado.
When asked what he was doing driving in such severe conditions and where he was going, he responded, “I had actually come back from a job interview." And did he get the job? “Thankfully, yes I did [get it]," the teen said. "I start on Monday.”
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