A 21-year-old man was charged Friday with gross vehicular manslaughter after prosecutors alleged he drove more than 50 mph while his 20-year-old friend attempted to car surf on an e-bike along Pacific Coast Highway, a stunt that left the friend dead three days later.
Braden Scott Soleau of Huntington Beach allegedly picked up eight passengers in his 2015 Toyota Tacoma at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 2, 2025, including three passengers in the bed of the pickup truck following a movie premiere in Huntington Beach, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors argued that Kolby Keoa Aipa was riding alongside Soleau’s truck on an e-bike as Soleau drove on a service road parallel to the Pacific Coast Highway, noting that Aipa asked Soleau if he could grab onto the vehicle and car surf.
“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 in a statement.
Soleau allegedly merged onto the southbound Pacific Coast Highway, traveling at approximately 50 mph while a passenger in the truck filmed Aipa riding with his arm through the truck window for about a mile near Seapoint Street, moments before Aipa lost control and fell.
Prosecutors emphasized to the public that 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.
Aipa was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange in critical condition, where he died three days later from blunt head trauma, prosecutors 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.