From Newsgroup: rec.bicycles.tech

A 21-year-old Huntington Beach man allegedly allowed a friend to ocar
surfo his pickup while driving more than 50 mph on Pacific Coast Highway
until the friend fell and suffered fatal injuries, the Orange County
District AttorneyAs Office announced on Friday, July 17.

Brandon Scott Soleau is facing a felony count of vehicular manslaughter
with gross negligence in connection with the death of 20-year-old
competitive surfer Kolby Kekoa Aipa on Aug. 2, 2025.

Prosecutors say Soleau was driving with eight passengers in his 2015
Toyota Tacoma u including three in the bed of the pickup u around 10:30
p.m. after a movie premiere in Huntington Beach.

Aipa reportedly rode an e-bike alongside SoleauAs pickup while they were traveling on a service road parallel to Pacific Coast Highway. Aipa u
who was not wearing a helmet u asked Soleau if he could ocar surfo the
pickup, prosecutors said. Soleau gave him permission, prosecutors added.

Aipa allegedly put his arm through an open front passenger window while
still sitting on the e-bike, allowing the pickup to pull the e-bike
along at faster speeds than it was meant to reach on its own.

Soleau merged onto southbound Pacific Coast Highway at 50 mph,
prosecutors allege, while Aipa continued to hold onto the pickup through
the truck window while sitting on the e-bike. A passenger in the pickup
was filming Aipa, prosecutors said.

After more than a mile on Pacific Coast Highway, as the pickup
approached Seaport Avenue, Aipa apparently lost control and fell onto
the roadway.

Aipa was taken to UCI Medical Center in critical condition. He died
three days later of blunt head trauma, prosecutors said.

According to the DAAs office, it is illegal under the state vehicle code
for anyone riding a motorized bicycle, like an e-bike, to oattach
themselveso to a vehicle on the roadway.

oThis 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,o Orange County
District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a written statement. oThis is a
stark reminder that every action and every decision have a consequence,
and in this instance the price of those decisions was the life of a
20-year-old man and that is a price no one should ever have to pay.o

If convicted as charged, Soleau faces up to six years in state prison.
He has not yet entered a plea. It wasnAt clear from court records if he
has yet hired or been assigned an attorney.

https://www.ocregister.com/2026/07/17/e-bike-riders-car-surfing-death-lea ds-to-charge-against-huntington-beach-driver/

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