In a long history of stunts on Baxter St., the Flying Tesla stands out.

• The Tesla stunt that took off from a Los Angeles hill to lift off was not the first of its kind.
• Baxter Street is used to display cars for over 100 years.
• March Tesla was a disaster that left trash cans and cars ruined. Authorities are now looking for the driver.

In a viral stunt, a Tesla flew above one of Los Angeles’ most steep hills. This wasn’t the first use of the hill to showboat cars.

At around midnight on March 20, someone driving a rented black 2018 Tesla S-BLM sped down the hill, flying 50 feet and crash-landing and skidding on its front bumper into two parked cars.

Baxter street and car stunts have a history that goes back over 100 years. The steep street’s history dates back even further.

The street’s origins date back to 1872, when Los Angeles officially designated an area in Echo Park as Baxter Street. Housing was built in the area, which was divided into a grid pattern, and by the 1890s, Baxter St. had been graded into the intense straight hill it is today — partially to act as a pedestrian path adjacent to the long-defunct streetcar line on Echo Park Avenue, According to Los Angeles Magazine.

Baxter St. was constructed on a gradient of 33% according to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. Today, hills in Los Angeles are graded at no higher than 15%. Baxter is third in Los Angeles’ steepest road and tenth in the United States. According to the Los Angeles Times.

LA Mag claims that by the beginning of the 1900s, Dodge is one example of a car manufacturerThe hill was used by the car owners to test their cars in various public stunts. Reporters with cameras caught the 1916 event as a truck loaded with 4,300 hay bales climbed the hill.

The March viral flying Tesla stunt was not the first, and Baxter St. has been a testing ground for social media stunts.

YouTuber David Dobrik recorded a video of one his friends in January 2020 His Tesla Tesla over the hillIt can catch significant amounts of air and have a similar but less dangerous effect.

—DAVID DOBRIK (@DavidDobrik) January 28, 2020

“These speed bumps in LA are on another level,”Dobrik captioned his video on Twitter. Elon Musk (Tesla’s founder, CEO) responded to Dobrik with a single exclamation point. This video has been viewed over 10 million times on Twitter.

This sharp incline has been the source of driver’s peril for years and is often the site of collisions. It was not originally designed to carry such heavy traffic.

Los Angeles has seen a significant increase in traffic by 2018 partly due to the introduction of navigation apps was forced to make a series of traffic updates — including directional changesand the addition of multiple stop signs. According to LADOT, the street was now “a major safety concern for residents, emergency vehicle access, and those using the roadway.”

Baxter Street 3 Days after the stunt

Old street is home to small units, Craftsman-style homes, and hilltop estates. Insider talked to residents of the area to learn that walkers had difficulty moving up and down the street because of the gravity pull of the gradient. Skidmarks left by a shredded front bumper can be seen on the street section where the car crashed-landed. Residents had left trash cans out for garbage pickup but they were torn apart by the nosediving Tesla.

“It could have been cool,”Cosmo, a local resident, asked Insider to use his middle name for Cosmo. “But somebody could have died, too.”

Cosmo said that he used to do street stunts with dirt bikes. But he advised Insider to get a permit for stunts in a more controlled area. He also recommended making sure cars were not parked. Cosmo was aware of the historical car culture, and Elysian Park’s car clubs.

Baxter St. residents spoke with Insider via their doorbell buzzer. They said that they tried to sleep through it, but were woken up by the Tesla colliding into another car on the street. “which sounded like fireworks.”

—Chazzy (@chazzydawgg) March 20, 2022

Alex Choi is a car influencerAn eyewitness video was postedThe incident was titled the day after. “jumping a tesla.”It shows him traveling to a Tesla meetup and drive in Los Angeles that he organized. He also vlogs the event.

Choi mentions at one point during the drive that “some random dude”Tell him he was going for a jump on the street Dobrik filmed: Baxter St. Choi film the incident from there and is left stunned.

It is still not clear how many passengers were actually in the car and if anyone was hurt.

The LAPD issued a $1,000 reward to anyone who can provide information about the driver. They also added that no description was available of the driver and that it was abandoned on the spot.

“We have received over 50 tips and anticipate more due the story going viral,”Los Angeles Police Department TweetFollowing the incident. “Over 90% of the tips are of the same person who has a TikTok handle of @dominykas or @durtedom on Twitter. He is considered a person of interest based on the public postings on his account.”

Authorities stated that the incident was being investigated as a misdemeanor hit-and-run and that the vehicle was rented through Enterprise. They are currently working with Enterprise to identify the driver.

Dominykas Zglaitis, a controversial influencer better known as Durte Dom, was formerly part Dobrik’s “vlog squad”claimed responsibilityIn multiple TikTok videos. This includes footage of the stunt in one TikTok video that amassed over 11 million views before being taken down by the platform.

Zeglaitis was called bluff by several influencers, which led to him being fired.Upload a YouTube VideoAlthough he claimed he didn’t have anything to do with the crash, he made videos to make it seem as if he did.

Jordan Hook, a local musician and resident, was ultimately the victim of the crash. His Subaru was one the two vehicles that were struck during the crash landing. This left his car completely wrecked. However, after a GoFundMe appealHook was able collect over $20,000 for his car’s repair, while the residents were forced to park their cars on the steep street.