A 16-year-old is the new face of the Texas Department of Transportation’s Click It Or Ticket campaign.
You might not recognize his face or his name, but you’ve likely seen the video of Riley Leon driving a red truck that was flipped and spun by a tornado in late March.
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Stormchaser Brian Emfinger tweeted a video of Leon’s Chevy truck as it took a beating from a tornado before landing back on its tires, allowing Leon to drive away.
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
Leon credits the fact that he was wearing his seatbelt as a reason he is still alive today.
The TXDOT Click it or Ticket campaign is celebrating its 20-year anniversary this month with an estimated 6,972 lives saved since its induction.
Leon can be seen in a tweet from TXDOT Austin sharing his story during this week’s anniversary event.
16-year-old Riley Leon shares his story of how a seatbelt saved his life when a tornado rolled his pickup. #ClickItorTicket #EndTheStreakTX pic.twitter.com/S1SZu9bVBI
— TxDOT Austin (@TxDOTAustin) May 16, 2022
According to TXDOT data, more than 100,000 serious injuries have been prevented by the Click It or Ticket campaign, saving an estimated $23.6 billion in related economic costs.