Driver, 21, charged over friend’s ‘car-surfing’ death on Pacific Coast Highway

Driver, 21, charged over friend’s ‘car-surfing’ death on Pacific Coast Highway The victim was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and he died three days later - Bookmark A 21-year-old has been charged with gross vehicular manslaughter after his friend died while “car surfing” on Pacific Coast Highway, prosecutors say. The charge comes more than a year after Kolby Keoa Aipa, grandson of legendary Hawaiian surfboard maker Ben Aipa, was rushed to the hospital and died of his injuries. His friend, Braden Scott Soleau of Huntington Beach, picked up eight passengers in his 2015 Toyota Tacoma at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 2, 2025, after a movie premiere in Huntington Beach, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office. Three passengers were riding in the bed of the pickup truck and Aipa, who was on an e-bike, asked Soleau if he could grab onto the vehicle and car surf, prosecutors say. "Soleau is accused of giving Aipa permission to do so and Aipa grabbed on to Soleau's pickup truck by putting his arm through the open front passenger window while riding his e-bike," prosecutors said. A passenger in the truck filmed Aipa, riding with his arm through the truck window, as Soleau allegedly drove 50 miles per hour southbound on Pacific Coast Highway. At one point, Aipa, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, lost control and fell. He was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange in critical condition and died three days later from blunt head trauma, prosecutors said. It is illegal under the California Vehicle Code for any person riding a motorcycle, motorized bicycle, or bicycle, coaster, roller skates, sled or toy vehicle to attach to any moving vehicle on the roadway, adding that Aipa was also not wearing a helmet. “This tragedy cost the life of a young man with his entire future ahead of him and will forever impact a young man who will have to live the rest of his life knowing that he killed his friend,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said. Soleau faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison if convicted on a felony count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday at the West Justice Center in Westminster. With reporting by City News Service [Image text:] t Hwy Pacific Coast