Riley Leon, the teen driver whose truck was swept up by a tornado, is now the general public face of the Texas’ Department of Transportation’s “Click It or Ticket” campaign.
Leon was certainly one of a number of audio system at a news convention in Austin on Monday celebrating the campaign’s twentieth anniversary.
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In his speech, the 16-year-old informed of his harrowing escape from the tornado, which was caught on video and went viral. He was carrying a seatbelt and survived with minor accidents.
“Sometimes I think to myself, without the seatbelt, would I be here?” Leon informed CBS Austin shortly after the news convention.
Leon added: “I’m thankful for the seatbelt.”
Leon was heading dwelling from a job interview at Whataburger when his 2.5-ton Chevrolet Silverado was swept up in a tornado in March.
A storm chaser on the opposite facet of the agricultural freeway in Elgin, a metropolis about 40 miles from Austin, caught the scene on video. Leon’s truck spun the other way up in a circle earlier than the wind flipped it upright. Leon may then be seen within the viral video rushing away from the storm.
Leon is now dealing with a decrease again fracture however mentioned he’s recovering.
Since the state’s “Click it or Ticket” campaign launched in 2002, 6,972 lives are estimated to have been saved by way of the initiative, in line with the National Highway Safety Administration. The division additionally estimates that the campaign has prevented 120,000 critical accidents.
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Despite the success, a median of 1 in 10 Texans nonetheless doesn’t buckle up, and the state has skilled a 14 % enhance in crashes involving individuals who weren’t carrying a seatbelt from 2020 to 2021, in line with TxDOT. There have been 3,507 crashes in Texas final 12 months involving individuals who weren’t buckled up. Many of these crashes resulted in critical accidents or deaths.
“Unfortunately, every day there are still Texans needlessly suffering serious injuries or dying in traffic crashes because they are not buckled up,” mentioned Michael Chacon, TxDOT’s Traffic Safety Division Director, on the news convention.
The division’s campaign additionally highlighted the story of Darcey Goodloe, of Waco.
Goodloe was a Waco highschool pupil in 2010 when her truck was rear-ended by an 18-wheeler. Her truck shot throughout a number of lanes on icy Interstate 35 and right into a median, the place it landed vertically, face down.
Goodloe has since graduated from Texas Tech University and have become a kindergarten instructor. She’s additionally married and is anticipating her first little one, in line with a TxDOT news launch.
In an advisory, state officers say Goodloe’s determination to put on a seatbelt allowed her to stroll away with just a few scratches.
According to TxDOT, carrying a seatbelt reduces the chance of dying by up to 45 % in entrance seats of automobiles and up to 60 % in pickup vehicles.
From May 23 by way of June 5, Texas places of work and deputies will step up enforcement of the state’s seat belt and little one automotive seat legal guidelines.
Texas regulation requires drivers and all passengers in a automobile to put on a seat belt. Unbuckled drivers and passengers may face fines and court docket prices of up to $200.
