Image via Traffic Cam Watch/YouTube
Tornadoes can be scary because of their unpredictable nature. They’ve been known to suddenly change course, even “leap” over some buildings in their path, and do other bizarre things. This makes driving around one especially scary, as you’ll see in this video of two semi-trucks getting swallowed up by one.
Man drives through tornado, has the video to prove it.
The incident in question happened on May 21 near Nevada, Iowa. A state traffic camera caught the whole thing on video before it was destroyed by the high winds.
In the footage, you see one semi-truck slow and stop as the driver spots the tornado approaching the divided freeway he’s on. This seems like a wise move, although in hindsight he probably should’ve reversed and gotten as far away from the tornado as possible.
A second semi pulling a tanker trailer comes along as the tornado starts crossing the opposite site of the freeway. Instead of slowing and stopping, that driver just barrels right into the darkness and disappears. It’s a true Leeroy Jenkins moment.
Most people would say the strategy of the first driver, to just stop his truck and wait for the storm to pass, is the wisest one. But he too gets swallowed up by the tornado. Just before that, you see the cab and trailer both are flipped onto their side by the high winds.
Then the camera goes to static as it’s damaged and stops recording.
From Fox Weather, we learn that both truck drivers were miraculously uninjured. The first truck stayed on the side of the road, tipped onto its side, and at least wasn’t ripped apart. As for the tanker that plunged into the tornado at speed, it was pushed off the road, crashing into a line of trees and apparently was okay.
Both truckers got lucky, probably in part because their vehicles weigh so much. A regular car might have been picked up and flung who knows how far. Or pulled apart like a pinata.
Watch the crazy footage for yourself.
Image via Traffic Cam Watch/YouTube
