Teen falls to his death from L.A.’s Sixth Street Viaduct while trying social media stunt

A 17-year-old died in Los Angeles after slipping and falling while trying to climb onto an arch on the city’s Sixth Street Viaduct in order to film a social media stunt.

Police were called to the bridge at about 2 a.m. Saturday, when they found the unnamed victim. The boy was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The teen, whose name wasn’t immediately released, fell “when climbing upon one of the arches, in order to post, apparently, a social media broadcast,” Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said at a Tuesday meeting of the Los Angeles Police Commission.

The boy’s death is the latest in a series of daring actions at the bridge.

Opened on July 10, 2022, and intended to be a city landmark, the bridge quickly attracted pedestrians and skateboarders to the arches and drivers in drag racing. Incidents, including a three-car crash eight days after the opening, led the city to temporarily close the bridge multiple times.

The LAPD has upped patrols at the viaduct in order to prevent stunts, with a particular focus on dangerous driving in light of the May 19 release of the drag racing film “Fast X,” the 10th movie in the “Fast and Furious” franchise.