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Tornado Flips Truck and Driver Drives Away

Randy Jennings

Randy Jennings

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May 18, 2013
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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
 
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.
View attachment 22568
View attachment 22569
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.
View attachment 22570
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.
 
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