The owner of the red Chevy Silverado caught on video earlier this week being tossed around by a tornado is getting a new pickup. On its official Facebook page, Chevrolet posted that it is donating a brand-new 2022 Silverado to the Leon family. Sixteen-year-old Riley Leon was behind the wheel, heading to a job interview, when the tornado caught his pickup and tossed it around.
Working with Bruce Lowrie Chevrolet in Fort Worth, Texas, Chevy is giving the family a 2022 Silverado LT All-Star Edition finished in Cherry Red. Chevy will present the pickup to the family tomorrow, March 26, at the dealership.
“We are thankful Riley is safe, commend his driving skills during a frightening situation, and our hearts are with other families in Texas that have been affected by these storms,” Chevy posted. Chevy is also donating $50,000 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund to aid in recovery efforts in Texas.
The video from the encounter (above) that made its way around the web is astounding to watch. It captures a tornado passing through Elgin, Texas, as it crossed a road, engulfing the large red pickup as sparks shoot out from damaged power lines. The truck disappears in the chaos, but it emerges on its side. It’s spun around once before the tornado flips it back onto its wheels.
The video doesn’t reveal the extent of the damage, but it does look as if the side windows were blown out. We’d expect the truck is pretty scraped up, too, but it wasn’t damaged enough to stop it from slowly driving away from the incident.
Riley told KHOU11 that he knew the weather would be bad that day, but he had to get to a job interview at Whataburger. Riley hadn’t realized his encounter had been caught on video until he got home, and his brother showed him the video. Riley said he was upset about his truck, which he had saved up to buy from his dad, though that won’t be a problem after tomorrow. That’s a good thing, too, because he starts his new job at Whataburger on Monday.
