16-Year-Old Riley Leon Gifted New Truck And $15K Following Viral Tornado Video

Brian Emfinger/Bruce Lowrie Chevrolet/Facebook

16-year-old Riley Leon miraculously survived when the truck he was driving was hit by a tornado, taking him on the ride of his life. That ride was captured on video by storm chaser Brian Emfinger and immediately went viral.

The video captured by Emfinger showed a red truck being flipped onto its side and being spun around before being flipped back on its wheels, then driving off.  A preliminary report from the National Weather Service said the twister was an EF-2 with winds of roughly 115 mph.

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

“I honestly didn’t know what to do, to grab onto the steering wheel or to start praying,” Leon told KXAS in an interview after the incident that happened near Elgin, Texas.

The video has since garnered millions of views and caught the attention of a north Texas Chevy dealer who wanted to gift the teen a red 2022 Chevy Silverado to replace the one destroyed by the twister. Leon, who was on his way from from an interview at Whataburger when he drove into the path of the tornado, received the keys to his new ride on Saturday (March 26) along with a check for $15,000. The truck comes just in time for Leon to start his new job at Whataburger on Monday.

See the moment Riley Leon accepted the keys to his new truck and was surprised with a $15,000 check in the video below.