Some guy driving a Chevy Silverado near Elgin, Texas, has 2021 and 2022 encapsulated.
.
Treehouse wife: “How was work?”
Treehouse hubby: “Eh, ok. Weird drive home though. How’s kids?”
Wife: “The usual, but Jack needs help with math tonight”…
Hubby: “Ok, I’ll be in the garage for a bit”.
You might remember this prior ad for Chevy Silverado.
.
a couple of thoughts come to mind.
A person in a truck like this under such circumstances will likely start praying and/or begging forgiveness. That’s not much of a stretch of the imagination.
Did we just witness an instantaneous answer to such a prayer? And did the driver not respond appropriately upon having his prayers answered?
I think they will need an underwear change at the very least.
A drip pan for the driver and a drip pan for the truck.
How exactly do we know it was not the dog that made the difference??
That was my first thought.
“Oh Lord!!” then,
“THANK YOU LORD!!” then,
“I’m outta here!”
🎯
I think Jay Leno was praying in this one. I’ve seen this car at Great lakes dragaway many times over the decades.
They don’t stop gabbing and start rolling until the 3 minute mark.
This is from the article about the truck
You can see the tornado wind hit the road and flip the truck, spinning it around on its side as debris is flying everywhere. Then suddenly, it flips the truck right-side-up again and the driver just drives away. “I cannot believe they drove away like that,” Emfinger declared.
According to another storm chaser, Marcus Reynolds, he said the driver was about 16-17 and just suffered a cut on his arm from his harrowing ride. Reynolds said that he let the boy use his phone to call his parents. Reynolds also said that tornado was an EF-2 which is considered strong with an estimated 111-135 mph wind speed.
That’s pretty amazing and I wonder what he told his parents when he got home. “Well, you see, Dad, there’s this scratch on the hood because…” It takes some kind of presence of mind just to drive off like that after such an experience.
The truck is not different enough from other trucks. Same general dynamics. The driver was just on the right side of chaos in the moment.
Daniel drives a Ford.
“…the driver was about 16-17″… 🤣😂 I’m 99.99% sure he intentionally drove into it, just like I would have at that age! Boys will be BOYS!
There are old boys and there are bold boys.
Old bold boys however, are much more rare for some reason.
When I was a kid, we had what we called “whirlwinds” on the ranch. They looked and acted just like mini-tornadoes, picking up sand and tumbleweeds, while darting around.
As you pointed out, NATURALLY, if I could, I rode my horse into the center of them!
I have apologized, in his case posthumously, many times to that trusty horse for the grit he surely got in his eyes.
To change the topic, my mother, being a ranch girl from birth, knew how to “outrun” typical tornadoes, by the direction they generally travelled. Not that she sought the situation, but just learned how to best deal with one that occurred.
Of course, that wasn’t easy with sparse roads, but I was in the car on more than one occasion, on the way home from school, when she did it!
The principal at school also knew that if we were late getting there, we were probably stuck in the mud, or Mother had been killing a massive diamondback rattlesnake that had been on the dirt road in front of us. (Some of them over 8 feet long and bigger around than my dad’s arm at the shoulder, and he was a big man. Larger ones had awakened us inside the house with their rattling.)
We all learned how to perform that tricky snake killing maneuver early on:
1. You get going, then stop and skid the tires on top of the snake. Back up and repeat as many times as necessary.
2. YOU NEVER, EVER OPEN THE DOOR TO SEE IF YOU KILLED IT!
I ran over a northern water snake once. It was like hitting a speed bump. I hate snakes so I did it several more times. I instinctively did not stop and open the door to see if it was dead. No way no how.
Those water snakes with their diamond shaped heads look dangerous…but no rattles and no venom…BUT be sure you can tell them from a water moccasin….nasty beast.
Contrast and compare
https://srelherp.uga.edu/snakes/nersip.htm
The just driving if is kind of like Danny Sullivan in the 1985 Indy 500. Passes Mario, does a 360 degree spin at speed (so about 200 mph, give or take) and comes out of it facing in the right direction. He had to go to pit row to change tires because they were flat spotted, came out, passed Mario again and won the race. Sullivan was trained for that, though.
It takes some kind of presence of mind just to drive off like that after such an experience.
==========
if the engine kept running wheels do what else to do
TBH, in situations like that things happen so fast you don’t have time to think…but most likely after his wheel landed and he drove away he probably said a few Hail Marys.
There’s always time to say “Oh Lord!” He’ll get the message.
What the heck!!!
I grew up in that area…. tornado alley. I can tell you about driving through tornado-weather. It’s usually a LOT darker than this but the rule is to keep going no matter what. And the direction is always “out” or “away.” This driver probably knew this and also had the seatbelt fastened properly.
“and he just kept driving,..?”
Of COARSE he kept driving, what ELSE would he do? STOP? Theres a friggin TORNADO!
Honestly, what an asinine comment (hers, not yours.) Of course he drove away!
The 1970 Lubbock Texas tornado which cut a 1/2 mile swath through that city was a fearsome thing. This one in the video, was no picnic, but it was a small one with far lower winds.
Still, a tornado is a tornado and SCARY! This guy deserves a lot of credit for presence of mind!
looking forward to what “tornado guy” has to say on the news tonight!
“well, the truck was runnin’ good, so i just high-tailed it outta there….”
😂 😂 😂 😂
You may be a prophet.
nah, i forgot to add “….likety-split”!
🤣 🤣
Oh my God, I wish I were their ad company!
Funny!!
To this day my dream car has been a 1970 Chevy stepside truck, short bed, side spare, factory air, light metallic blue.
Oh, I forgot, gear shift on the floor, not the column.
That or an International Scout from that decade.
Good thing he wasn’t driving a Tesla or a convertible.
I’m thinking ther might be a clean up on center isle after that ride.
Doesn’t surprise me one bit. I’ll bet that driver is a bull rider. “Ain’t no tornado gonna stop me.”
He probably had his dog with him. Lol
🤣🤣🤣
Funny, but that was a dust devil, not a tornado (though technically they are called “clear air tornados”. It’s “fun” to run into one of them while riding a bicycle down the road…
(Although, on second viewing, I think that’s a ‘shop. The nearby plants aren’t blowing over. No idea what the dog is chasing, probably a treat at the end of a fishing line.)
Good clip! Brings on memories of “dust devils” in New Mexico when I lived there in the 60’s.
That’s how us Texans roll baby.
You bet!!
Sitting here 1/2 a mile back in the woods on the tailgate of my GM 1500 “Sierra” 4X4, burning some old pallets. This kid in TX handled the situation like a champ. Although, shoulda gave it a little fuel and did a donut ! Lol. That’s how we roll in Ohio! 🙂👍
That’s right, bubba!
Put a fresh beer in the cupholder and haul ass.
Ida cracked open a new can of Copenhagen and taken a huge pinch to.
“I’ll be in the garage for a bit”
lmfao!!
Beer Fridge!!
That was awesome! Somebody better drive right to church to give thanks.
True Texans know how to roll with the punches.
Texas tough.
Yup. Reminds me: When we were first married my hubby drove a Corvette. One afternoon I got a call and hubby says, “Can you come down to the dealership and pick me up—I had some car trouble.” When I drove into the Chevy place, there sat our Corvette—one breath away from having been totaled. Hubby got hit almost head-on by pickup. Car took all the force and the fiberglass folded. Hubby was fine. Some people are just born tough! (And blessed!)
Okay, even as the owner of an F250, I couldn’t help but smile at the commercial.
Sometimes leftist propaganda is funny.
Yeah, that commercial WAS awsome!
“twinky?”
“Dave didn’t make it!”
Personally, I thought the plague of frogs at the end was a nice touch.
So, is there some trick that can help right an auto spinning on its side? Maybe steering into the spin? Or should that be steering against the spin? If not, he is extremely lucky to have a gust hit him just right to flip him wheels down. Could have been just as easily wheels up if the gust was timed wrong.
I’d sure like to hear his story.
“Well there I was driving down the road minding my own business.
Suddenly a tornado touched down and spun me round for a bit.
My day would have been ruined except for the fact that I had
invested in a gimbled beer holder. That was the best investment
ever made.”
Yep. Best ever. But for the cops it’s a coffee holder.
Good question!
During my 29 years in law enforcement I spent 8 years as a member of our Collision Reconstruction Unit.
Videos like this one always gave us an opportunity to analyze vehicle dynamics during a collision.
Most of us watched NASCAR just for the wrecks.
The key to this truck righting itself is its clockwise rotation.
When it rolled on its side its center of mass shifted and its propensity to roll increased.
The trip mechanism appears to be the right shoulder of the highway.
When the front drivers’s side makes contact with the shoulder the vehicle flips back upright.
Because the vehicle was on its side, there is no way to turn into or out of the spin.
Assuming the driver could manage to even turn the front wheels, I don’t think it would do much to a vehicle spinning counter-clockwise.
In the clockwise spin seen in the video, turning the wheel either way might allow the front tire to re-engage the pavement and start to generate friction.
Whether it would generate enough friction to right the truck is questionable.
I’ll be pondering this for a while.
I hope he was wearing his brown trousers.
Dude in truck “to do list”.
1. Get on my knees and thank GOD ALMIGHTY.
2. Call Chevy, tell them they have some video headed their way, and I am available for the commercials.
3. Call insurance agent for repairs.
4. Throw my clothes away and get a shower…….TWICE!
5. Find a Ford driver so I can pity his choice in trucks….
6. Confidently flirt with the best looking woman in town!
“Honey, when I say I’ll get you home on time I *MEAN* it.”
Wonder if my Ford F 150 would have done same.
IC a Chevy commercial in this video.
If Chevy doesn’t find that guy and do a commercial it’ll be a HUGE opportunity lost.
So.many.options.
You could go all Crocodile Dundee on folks and have him park his truck next to other brands and go “that’s not a truck, THIS is a truck.”
You could have the wrecked truck in a line of other trucks of other brands with pretty girls bypassing all the other trucks to get a ride in that truck. Toss in whatever humorous thing you want to say.
You could show other brands of trucks “afraid” to get off the road and have that one blast through a Hollywood tornado, show the actual footage from the real tornado, and show the guy driving out of it.
So.many.options.
“Tornado Ted” could make a truckload of money with a Chevy commercial right now.
I have close relatives living near Elgin. They tell me that just prior to the event, there was wind and heavy rain. And then suddenly the tornado just came out of nowhere with no warning whatsoever.
My ex-wife was caught in the golf ball sized hailstorm that was part of that system. If that had happened to her truck, I’m sure she would have blamed me for it. Because according to her, everything is my fault. Hell, if it wasn’t for me, world peace would break out and condoms would never fail.
You married my wife’s sister?!?!?
Greg? Well hot damn! I thought so! Poker at Stan’s place as usual this Friday? I’ll bring the beer.
In this case seeing is believing. When Sundance says, this has 2021/2022 encapsulated I agree. If God is willing and if I’m still alive to describe this time period to my grandchildren, there is no way they’ll believe me. Hell, I’m living through it and I can’t believe half of it.
People who drive pickups tend to not get too caught up.
Too bad it’s a chevy
Probably thinking, “damn, I’m dizzy, probably shouldn’t have had that last drink”
Wow!
Thankfully the driver had his seatbelt on. Another COVID death averted.
I’m certain a Smart Car would have fared every bit as well, and wasted less wind energy in the process!
…….meanwhile, still floating somewhere near orbit….
Yeah, something happened alright…he had to change his pants when he got to where he was going.
Have the identical Silverado from the 2nd video. The silver one not the red one from the tornado. I’ve always driven Sierras or Silverados. Actually sold and traded down from from a GMC 3500hd dually to this current silverado 1500. They’re great trucks and not a bit surprised that red one would get rolled around and driven away
GMC 3500hd dually, my dream truck.
.
Alas you need a “real” garage to contain one.
.
Even then the garage does not truly contain a GMC 3500hd dually it is only a temporary rest place.
Exactly! The Duramax & Allison are some of the best ever produced
Bet that driver was not only fortunate, but will hit the jackpot in a little while! 😉
The perfect commercial for the Chevy!
Yeah, that’s as perfect as it gets!
I knew a man who had a similar experience in the 1974 tornado outbreak – except it was a Ford pickup, it turned him around 180 degress, and he drove out in the opposite direction.
In the early 80s one night, I had the rear parking brakes spontaneously engage and lock while traveling downhill on a steep incline during a strong, driving rain storm.
The vehicle proceeded to immediately lose control, and spin in circles the entire way down the hill, like a spinning top.
Applying the brakes was pointless … they were already engaged.
Fortunately, the road was straight and there was no oncoming traffic. The car thankfully spun like a top entirely inside its lane, and did not fly off the road, until it finally came to a stop 1/4 mile later at the base of the hill.
It was like something out of a sick comedy movie. Promptly got rid of that car.
😂 So the Ford driver drove BACK THRU the storm. 😆
Yep, those fords aren’t into style points like those chevys.
They just go on about their business.
Nice four point landing! Between the photographer and the driver nice to avoid death by stupidity and not covid.
What about the guy filming going towards the tornado? Ha ha ha ha!! Now that’s someone I’m worried about. Anyway, Chevy just got the best free publicity ever.
Pfft, he was in a TUNDRA.
He’s good.
Just an FYI….It’s ELL-GEN in Texas, It’s ELL-JEN in Illinois. Elgin, Texas is about 30 miles east of Austin on US 290.
And about 10 miles from a huge new Tesla factory being built.
Uncle Buck says, “Don’t worry about the truck; it’ll buff right out.”
Uncle Buck rocks!
That’s a real cowboy up!!!! Man O Man….
,,
Holy shnikies!
‘Merica!
Chevy… Like a rock baby
maybe it looked like nothing happened, too the truck anyway, but check those underwear when he gets home.
Fortunately for him, the underwear got sucked right out the window!
I bet the truck would have landed in the next county, if it were a paper-weight electric vehicle. Anyone know the difference in gross vehicle weights (GVW) of a real truck and a battery operated go-cart? Is anyone in gubbmint studying and debating the exponential increase in US traffic fatalities as a result of driving paper Mache, golf carts on the highways?
Actually, the battery of the Ford electric pickup alone is as heavy as the max payload of an F150. Electric cars are heavy. An electric motor has vastly more torque than a gas engine. Weight and torque—perfect truck for stump pulling. But I’m a contractor. I throw in twenty or forty (more likely the later these days) bucks worth of gas and get to next job—time is money.
I’d use one if A) they had an 8’ bed, B) I could refuel/charge in five minutes while I got coffee, and C) I could get a 2002 with 70 K miles for under five grand. Until then, gotta keep patching the old Ford together
Good info Bruce, thank you. I thought e-cars would be as lightweight as possible, so the power of their motors and batteries could pull the passenger/ cargo weight. I’ve no experience beyond golf carts. In my ignorance, that’s how I see them anyway.
“That’ll buff right out.”
i can’t stop laughing,OS!
yeah riiiiiight…..
😂 😂 😂 😂
Living your life like a TEXAN.
It was pretty scary when it blew through north Houston this morning around 6:30a!
An these little globalist twerps think they guna winnn?
What’s the big deal?
A quick trip to the body shop for a bit of a touch up and all’s good … it’s all those pit stops on the way home that’ll be remembered for the rest of his life.
Smart driver to keep going and get away from those downed power lines!
This represents the U.S. after the F-jb/nwo storm passes. Meh, what else you got?
I love Barry Manilow 🙂
Hope the FBI don’t see that, they’ll bust him for an illegal lane change and failure to signal.
Tornado? Who will the media blame first? Putin or Trump?
Of course, the climate change/global cooling/global warming people will
be on this like a bear seeing a honeycomb.
WOW That reminds me of the Bullfighter meme – where the Bull is indicated as “the Jab” and the Bullfighter is nominated as “me” !
But in this case:- the twister is “Australian Mandates” and the pickup is “me“!
Crazy day yesterday!
One of these monsters touched down in my neighborhood ~5 blocks away from my residence.
Thankfully no injuries to my community neighbors.
The tornado couldn’t move a Super Duty.
I’ll take a steel bed in my 2500 over an aluminum one in Ford any day.
I’ll see your 2500 and raise you a 3500 Crew cab long bed dually diesel.
You gonna call, China? 😉
(It’s all good. Heckuva video, eh?)
I wanted the diesel but it was 10 grand more than the 6.6 gas and I didn’t want to deal with the DEF…. mines a crew cab with the long bed too… not a dually. I just wanted a big arss truck…. all i tow is my ego LOL!!
Right about now, I’ll take the lighter aluminum bed every time I fill up.
Not if you live in the Snow Belt where those steel beds rot out….
sorry but it will
Chevy tough, regardless of Mary Barra.