One must ask, why didn’t he pull a gun when he got pulled over at the very first ? He could have gotten a nice suicide right there. Why flee ?
Why, over where the cops come out of the woods, are there vehicle tracks leading from lower left to top middle ?
Because the truck he was driving wasn't stuck. I'm sure he considered dying his last option ( he already made it clear by own statements he considered it an option), and once the truck was stuck and he was surrounded he exercised the option he saw available. I don't consider it unreasonable to consider him a man of his word, who died by it.