17-year-old dies climbing new LA bridge for social media stunt

A 17-year-old has died after attempting to climb a bridge in Los Angeles as part of a broadcast on social media, police have confirmed.

Details about the incident remain limited, such as the identity of the deceased, and what social media platform they were broadcasting on.

Officers were called at around 2am on Saturday, May 20, to the Sixth Street Viaduct. There, they found the teenager, who was later pronounced dead in hospital.

According to police, the teenager slipped and fell “when climbing upon one of the arches. Police Chief Michel Moore said the stunt was performed “in order to post, apparently, a social media broadcast.”

The bridge in question is a new feature in LA, opened in July 2022, to replace an older art-deco style bridge, at a cost of $588 million.

At the top, there are views of the LA skyline, which might have been the teenager’s ambition to reach.

The bridge has become a hotspot though, with police having to close it on numerous occasions in the past. Illegal activities such as street racing and graffiti have caused these closures, as well as one incident where a barber cut a man’s hair in the middle of the traffic lanes.

In January, a killing took place on the bridge, when a man was shot and killed during the filming of a music video.

Police Chief Moore continued, “Tragically we see that location, while it has spawned a great deal of pride in Los Angeles, it has also unfortunately served as a backdrop now for tragedies such as this. Our added patrols will continue at that location to counter such reckless actions.”