TACOMA, Wash. -- The 66-mile chase that led police through three counties and reached speeds of 90 mph on Wednesday morning left some wondering why police let it go on for so long.

Simply put, police say it was too dangerous.

The chase began in South Everett at 3 a.m. when the driver refused to pull over for a Snohomish County deputy. When the chase ran into King County, Seattle police and the state patrol joined in.

The runaway driver hit speeds of up to 90 mph on Interstate 5 with police in hot pursuit.

When he reached Tacoma, the driver got off of I-5 onto Portland Avenue past the Puyallup Tribal Police Station, heading south at 80 to 90 mph.

By the time he had blown through several red lights, Snohomish deputies had dropped out and state troopers had, too, claiming the pursuit had become too dangerous.

But two Seattle police canine cars and Puyallup tribal officer stayed on the driver's heel.

Finally at the Puyallup Fairgrounds, the driver of the blue Cadillac surrendered after the car had run out of gas.

The chase stretched from Everett to Tacoma, to Puyallup and added up to 66 miles in 47 minutes. It ended without injuries, but people along Portland Avenue were nervous about the speed.

"If there had been anyone out on the road or animals or people, they could have gotten killed easily," said resident Sheri Hart.

Puyallup Tribal Police Chief Joe Duenas says officials consider all factors when dealing with a high-speed chase.

"We consider traffic, road conditions, weather conditions and a supervisor will make that determination whether to terminate," he said. "We want to stop a pursuit if anybody is in jeopardy. At 3:30 in the morning there's not a lot of traffic.

Innocent people have gotten injured and even killed in past police chases. That's why officials said they won't hesitate to call off a chase off if it becomes too dangerous.

So why didn't Seattle and Tribal police do that this time?

"Again, at 3:40 in the morning, there's not a lot of people out," said Duenas.

But the tribal police said the department will review this chase as well as its overall policy on chasing suspects, which it had planned to to prior to this specific chase.

The driver was arrested for eluding police and drug possession. A woman who was with him told police he was smoking crack cocaine during the entire chase.