ELGIN, Texas – A Texas teenager who went viral for accidentally driving through a tornado in his red Chevrolet truck will be getting a brand new one.
On Thursday, Chevrolet posted on social media that they will donate a brand new 2022 Silverado 1500 LT All Star Edition in Cherry Red to 16-year-old Riley Leon. The truck will be given to him and his family at a Fort Worth dealership on Saturday.
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According to an interview with KTBC, Leon was driving back from Whataburger after a job interview when he apparently missed two U-Turns on the road.
That was when video from stormchaser Brian Emfinger of Live Storms Media showed the tornado flipping his truck on its side and spun it as storms rolled through central and southeast Texas last Monday. The truck landed on its tires, and Leon drove off.
“So I saw that U-turn and I’m like, I’m going to take this one ‘cause I can...I can see it and I don’t see nothing strange around,” he told KTBC. “And around right when I was going to take the U-turn, that’s when the tornado coming and it lifted my truck. And that’s when the infamous video of me came out.”
Leon suffered minor cuts during the tumble, but was later taken to the hospital on Thursday due to fractures on his back, KXAN reported.
Emfinger’s video of Leon’s turbulent moment immediately went viral, with more than 98,000 likes and 21,000 retweets on Twitter.
“OMG, just going through my video,” he tweeted. “This is a story about a red truck and a tornado. I CANNOT believe they drove away like that.”
Chevrolet will also donate $50,000 to the American Red Cross to help with recovery efforts throughout Texas after Monday’s tornado outbreak.