High speed chase ends in Oceanside with electric dirt bike arrest

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office’s — perhaps first — high-speed electric bike chase ended with an arrest and the rider facing serious charges.

Investigators said the 19-year-old on the electric dirt bike not only fled law enforcement but also rammed a sheriff’s deputy.

A half-dozen San Diego sheriff’s patrol cars chased 19-year-old Hunter Bellish from Vista to Oceanside on Tuesday afternoon. Deputies said he was riding at speeds of more than 50 miles per hour.

“Now we are doing police pursuits on e-bikes? The amount of lives he put in jeopardy for that is so not worth it, including his own,” Witness Jody Taylor said.

Taylor said the pursuit ran down her 25-mile-per-hour residential street and ended on a hill at the end of it. She recorded the arrest on her cellphone.

“First, the sheriff is bringing the bike down the hill, then bringing the gentleman down the hill. He was pretty upset, obviously,” Taylor said.

Investigators said Bellish was riding an unregistered Arctic Leopard electric dirt bike on North Melrose Drive. Deputies clocked him going more than 50 miles per hour in the bike lane and running red lights.

At Crestview and Meadowbrook Drives is where law enforcement said the situation went from risky and dangerous to felonious. According to deputies, Bellish made a U-turn there and drove full speed into the motorcycle officer pursuing him.

“If he’s going head-on into a sheriff’s deputy on a motorcycle — I don’t know if he was moving — but that could have been a much worse event,” Taylor said.

Taylor would know. She spent a decade in emergency services, including time as an EMT.

Fortunately, neither Bellish nor the deputy was injured in the collision.

Jail records show Bellish is facing two felony charges, including evading law enforcement and reckless driving. He remains in custody at the Vista Detention Facility on $50,000 bail.

“The amount of charges he will probably get for that — putting a law enforcement officer’s life in danger for that — probably not worth it,” Taylor said.

Taylor said if this is the first chase of its kind, it likely won’t be the last, with so many e-bikes now on the road.

The sheriff’s office said properly classified and equipped e-bikes are allowed on public streets.

However, electric dirt bikes are not allowed on public streets, unless both the vehicle and rider meet the full legal requirements for motorcycles.