BURTON, OH In the heart of Geauga County's Amish country, buggies and pedestrians share the road with cars and trucks. On Sunday morning, that meeting of the old world and the new world was a recipe for danger.
A Geauga County Sheriff's deputy tried to pull over a mini-van driven by 19-year-old Seth Chan of Huntsburg for traveling 74 miles an hour in a 55 zone, but investigators say Chan tried to outrun the deputy.
The roads were crowded with members of the Amish community heading to church for Sunday morning services. The driver of the mini-van accelerated to speeds approaching 100 miles an hour, and narrowly avoided hitting several buggies and motorized vehicles as well.
The Geauga County sheriff defends his deputy's decision to continue the chase and maintains he followed departmental policies. Sheriff Dan McClelland says "our deputy, yes engaged in a pursuit but did it with a reasonable concern for safety, as you watch on the chase our deputy slowed and stopped appropriately at intersections to avoid a collision, he slowed down as he went around the buggies."
At various points of the chase, the deputy lost sight of the speeding vehicle, and it was the Amish who pointed out the direction that the driver took.
The helping hand allowed a second deputy to set up a road block in the village of Burton. The driver was ordered out of the vehicle at gunpoint and told deputies that he fled because he does not have a license.
The Sheriff says if Seth Chan had just pulled over, he would have been given a speeding ticket, and the mini-van would have been towed. But as a result of his decision to run, he faces a felony charge of fleeing and eluding.
Chan is being held in the Geauga County Jail on a bond of $10,000.
A Geauga County Sheriff's deputy tried to pull over a mini-van driven by 19-year-old Seth Chan of Huntsburg for traveling 74 miles an hour in a 55 zone, but investigators say Chan tried to outrun the deputy.
The roads were crowded with members of the Amish community heading to church for Sunday morning services. The driver of the mini-van accelerated to speeds approaching 100 miles an hour, and narrowly avoided hitting several buggies and motorized vehicles as well.
The Geauga County sheriff defends his deputy's decision to continue the chase and maintains he followed departmental policies. Sheriff Dan McClelland says "our deputy, yes engaged in a pursuit but did it with a reasonable concern for safety, as you watch on the chase our deputy slowed and stopped appropriately at intersections to avoid a collision, he slowed down as he went around the buggies."
At various points of the chase, the deputy lost sight of the speeding vehicle, and it was the Amish who pointed out the direction that the driver took.
The helping hand allowed a second deputy to set up a road block in the village of Burton. The driver was ordered out of the vehicle at gunpoint and told deputies that he fled because he does not have a license.
The Sheriff says if Seth Chan had just pulled over, he would have been given a speeding ticket, and the mini-van would have been towed. But as a result of his decision to run, he faces a felony charge of fleeing and eluding.
Chan is being held in the Geauga County Jail on a bond of $10,000.
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