While playing with toy trucks is a past time typically reserved for youngsters, adult truckers in real life must sometimes endure some seriously dangerous and challenging weather conditions. In fact, due to recent extreme weather in Texas and Oklahoma right now, gusts upwards of 100mph have caused a massive pileup involving around 38 vehicles on Interstate 27 in the south of Canyon, killing at least eight people and injuring several others, per Accuweather. With the powerful winds causing so much chaos on the roads, footage of truckers battling against the intense gusts has surfaced online.
The beginning of the 37-second clip centers on a blue 18-wheel ‘Trius’ semi truck in Amarillo, Texas as it gets lifted from off the road by an incredibly strong gust of wind, before toppling over onto its side. The video is accompanied by some commentary from extreme weather photographer and storm chaser, Blake Brown.
“There it goes. There goes another one. There goes another one.” Blake exclaims as footage of various trucks is shown being blown over by the extreme weather conditions. In the final snippet, near the end of the footage, we see a large red truck driving along the intersection with its back wheels suspended in the air. Though it looks like it’s about to topple over, like the other vehicles in the video, the last truck driver manages to steer his way out of trouble and gain control of the lorry.
Internet users were left astounded by the incredible footage, which saw the truckers battling for their lives against the formidable force of nature. One Redditor wrote, “That guy in the last one drove that truck like a f**kin champion.” while another added, “Truck number 4 looks like it out maneuvered the wind but check out their front right tire, it explodes under the pressure.” A more lighthearted comment also came in, writing, “Someone needs to throw some F-ZERO music over that“.
Taking to Twitter/ X, Blake described the devastation that he witnessed at the scene. “I am currently in Amarillo, Texas right now. I’m on Lakeside. I’ve filmed four different semi tricks flipping over right here. They won’t close the road down. They just pushed the semis into the ditch and let people keep going. It’s just continuously been trucks flipping. Billboard next to me is blowing apart. There’s multiple power lines down all across Amarillo. There’s a multi-car pileup near Canyon. And then, the visibility is almost zero in a lot of locations around Amarillo. If you don’t have to drive, do not drive.”
