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Police agencies have varying policies on when to initiate a chase:
* The Summit County Sheriff's Office decides whether to initiate its pursuits on a case-by-case basis, Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds said Monday.
* In Salt Lake County, police departments allow their officers to chase fleeing cars only if the suspect is wanted for a violent felony, such as murder, robbery or aggravated assault.
* Utah Highway Patrol troopers can pursue suspects for offenses as minor as expired registration or speeding.
Rachal Cottrell says her brother's mental health may have influenced the course of the high-speed chase with police that ended with his death, but on Monday questioned why the pursuit ever began.
Douglas Cottrell, 57, of Salt Lake City, had suffered from schizophrenia for most of his life, she said. On Sunday, police attempted to pull him over on Interstate 80 as he was heading into Summit County. An ensuing pursuit ended when Cottrell crashed into an ethanol tanker truck.
"He believed there were people after him that wanted to kill him," said Rachal Cottrell. "He was really sick and felt like people were following him all the time."
Even so, Cottrell said she doesn't think police would have chased her brother had they known of his condition - or even needed to chase him based on his alleged offense and the fact that the canyon he was driving in had few outlets.
The pursuit started with a call to police alleging Douglas Cottrell had accepted payment for some kind of work, but left without performing the job, said Summit County Detective Cpl. Joshua Wall.
Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds on Monday justified the decision to initiate a chase of Cottrell, and said he believes Cottrell's last move was an intentional one to commit suicide.
When deputies spotted Cottrell's Subaru station wagon on I-80 near Kimball Junction, they tried to pull him over. Cottrell continued west but did not try to flee until he reached the Salt Lake County line, Wall said. There, he sped up to between 80 and 100 mph, he said.
Edmunds said Monday the decision to pursue Cottrell was influenced by the fact that he was driving "erratically." He said he believed Cottrell was most likely impaired by drugs or alcohol, though autopsy results won't be available for six to eight weeks.
"Some agencies don't chase. That's a decision we made," Edmunds said. "This was was more than just pursuing a simple fraud suspect. Once the man refused to pull over, the situation was elevated to a felony."
Rachal Cottrell isn't entirely sure her brother was suicidal.
"There's no way of knowing what he was thinking," she said. "I don't want to believe it. But maybe he got tired of suffering."
During the pursuit, joined by one Utah Highway Patrol trooper, Douglas Cottrell tried to avoid spike strips positioned to stop him, but instead spun around and drove onto oncoming traffic where he collided with an oncoming sheriff's cruiser traveling at around 35 mph, Wall said.
The deputy driving the cruiser suffered injuries to his right shoulder and arm, but refused medical treatment. Police say Cottrell then veered through the median, traveled west a short distance, then drove back through the median and crashed into the rear trailer tires of a semitrailer near the summit of Parleys Canyon.
Rachal Cottrell said her brother had multiple personalities and a hard time holding a job or leading a normal life because of his illness. His schizophrenia grew worse as he got older, and he distanced himself from his relatives, she said.
At the time of the crash, the family did not know exactly where Cottrell was living, said his sister.
Rachal Cottrell said her brother was a kind individual who would do anything for anyone. She said he was a loving man who was just "really sick and needed help." She hopes the incident will shed light on schizophrenia.
"There are lots of people living with this disease," Cottrell said. "We need more education about it and more resources so people don't feel alone."