170 km/hr car chase: reckless cowboys or heros?

Today the Toronto Star reported a story of chivalry...or craziness, depending on your perspective. 

The lead states: “Two Ottawa men's decision to chase a car through residential roads at speeds exceeding 170 km/h to catch a suspected rapist has sparked a debate as to how far citizens should go when trying to help police.”

These two men came to the rescue of a woman who had been attacked, but did they put themselves and others in danger to do so?

"When they put her in the back of the car, that was heroism," the Ottawa police chief said. "What happened after wasn't."

I think it opens an interesting debate, we’re a society that tends to blame. What would have been said if these two men hadn’t followed the attacker?

 "There's two sides to every story. I can see their point: We're very lucky we didn't have a head-on (collision). But if we did nothing, people would have said, `you should have followed him.' It's lose-lose," said the driver.