Tornado Flips Truck and Driver Drives Away

Randy Jennings

Randy Jennings

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By now many of you have probably seen the video Brian Emfinger got of a pickup truck being flipped over and spun around in the EF-2 (prelim rating) Elgin TX tornado west of Austin TX on Monday 3/21/22. The vehicle was then flipped back on it's wheels and the driver drives off.

Here is the Brian's original post: Twitter

Here is a news story that includes as Good Morning America interview with the driver: 16-year-old driver tossed in Elgin tornado lucky to be alive | kvue.com
 
It is amazing that he survived while the young man was killed in Arabi, Louisiana in his pickup truck.
 
I think the accelerometers require a major jolt lest bad potholes set them off-assuming they weren't disabled. The tornado kept the truck moving-and maybe that fooled the chip? Now, it was the inflow jet that righted it, correct? The tornado itself passed by quickly...I don't think there was a trailing vortex...
 
I was thinking that maybe the truck was cushioned by a layers of air flow, kind of like a wing. Crazy idea, fit for wind modeling, but it looked somewhat undamaged for a rolled truck. Too bad he did not have a front mounted camera! Glad he was OK.
 
Im glad it was a Chevy. "Like A Rock" . Additionally, i am a little surprised that we have not gotten more reports/ footage in our target area from chasers here at Stormtrack?
 
Story with driver, all is ok: 16-year-old driver tossed in Elgin tornado lucky to be alive - a Chevy dealership in Ft. Worth is giving him a new truck

I’m using this story as an opportunity for a learning experience: I’ve been telling friends and family (who share the story with me) that it’s important to have a higher level of situational awareness when driving on a severe weather day, especially one with a high threat for tornadoes. Much like driving through a neighborhood with children playing in the front yards, it’s best to have one’s head on a swivel on a day with a tornado threat.

This is certainly not a criticism of the kid’s driving: but, being 16, I’ll have to think that he may have just been looking at the road ahead (which may have been fine in better weather)

There may have been a chance for the driver to notice the tornado a few seconds early and slow down to let it pass in front of his truck. Most importantly, I’m glad he’s fine.

I work for a company that is starting a driving school here in Texas (we do other things as well) and I’ve asked the managers if we would consider offering a lesson- or at least creating a brochure and/or website link- about driving in severe weather.
 
I think he slowed down...maybe not much of a condensation funnel. The tornado had to do all the work. He didn't get fountained up. The tornado being weak and translating across the road quickly. Now a decade or so back-there was chopper footage of a narrow, almost invisible vortex that sent a vehicle at highway speed sailing-this I think was even before the event where trailers made like box kites. Those were initially stationary-and thus allowed the wind a grip as here. Had this young man been speeding-he would simply have been thrown into a ditch-at speed...the momentum carrying him through the vortex before it could use him as a spirograph! At speed, he may have went airborne. As it was, he had a 'gentler' time of it. In racing...it seems the more violent looking a crash is-the less fatal.
 
Man, I remember flipping my truck when I was 16.
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I saw pictures of his truck after it got flipped, and I would fix it since there probably isn't any structural damage to the cab.
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It just needs a bedside, two doors and some work on the rear of the cab (I used to do collision repair for a living).
 
Jack R. Jester said:
Man, I remember flipping my truck when I was 16.
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I saw pictures of his truck after it got flipped, and I would fix it since there probably isn't any structural damage to the cab.
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It just needs a bedside, two doors and some work on the rear of the cab (I used to do collision repair for a living).
Click to expand...
Depending on if he had full coverage...I just priced out new bed sides to replace the ones that were rusting away on my 2010 Silverado in February $5500. I bet there is more damage there than the truck is worth depending on how much he could do himself.
 
I have no doubt this will lead to people doing stupid things to try and get a new vehicle, driving into a tornado or otherwise. I have to disagree with giving him a new vehicle, which is only a publicity stunt for Chevy since it was captured on video. He should have never been out driving in an active severe weather situation, including watches and warnings. Many people have died from ignoring severe weather warnings and I think this sends the wrong message. Regardless, I'm glad he was not hurt.
 
While Warren makes some good points, obviously suggesting that people who should drive in a watch is over the line just a tad bit.

Or a lot :)

99.99999% of people in a watch survive, and 99.999998% of people in a warning survive.

The point is that Chevy did a great deed by helping the kid out. And no, this won't turn into a TikTok craze.
 
Warren Faidley said:
I have no doubt this will lead to people doing stupid things to try and get a new vehicle, driving into a tornado or otherwise. I have to disagree with giving him a new vehicle, which is only a publicity stunt for Chevy since it was captured on video. He should have never been out driving in an active severe weather situation, including watches and warnings. Many people have died from ignoring severe weather warnings and I think this sends the wrong message. Regardless, I'm glad he was not hurt.
Click to expand...
Nothing would ever get done in the plains states late spring/early summer. I was 1.5 miles into my bike ride when the watch was issued yesterday. Id been home from 3 hours before rain even got close. We had zero severe weather. I cant stop life for a watch. I cant say I agree with you.
 
He basically ignored multiple warning systems designed to protect people. Days of advanced notice regarding a potentially dangerous event. The watch, the warning, reports of tornadic storms in the area and the big, black ugly clouds approaching his area. Just like in law, ignorance of the "danger" is not an excuse in a modern world of social media, sirens, etc. This is not about casually driving on a "watch" day under clear skies that never produce a threat.

I've covered similar tornadic events where people did the exact same thing he did (in a house or in a car) and were seriously injured or killed. They received noting, because no company could use the social-media publicity of the event to promote a product. What if there had been a child in the truck that was killed? Would Chevy promote the event? No. We would all be saying he was irresponsible. What about people getting the impression they can now survive a tornado in a vehicle -- a false perception safety experts have been trying to dismiss for years.

If Chevy wanted to promote safety and common sense, they should have given him and everyone in the town a weather radio or additional tornado sirens.
 
Actually you are safer in a vehicle than in a ditch, so if the video saves lives - it's a good thing. We've been trying to get away from the "ditch" messaging for years as it never was a good idea in the first place - just a response to a tornado event in the 1970s that never went through actual scientific analysis.
 
Schmidlin's paper suggested that. A car wedged in a ditch slowly may not get airborn-water filled maybe. The kid might wind up in a commercial like Gene R. did right after Twister. Is anyone doing photogrammetry on the images? That could be of merit.
 
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