Netizens praise hero who rescues child riding a scooter in the middle of the road

Singapore—A video of a small child riding his scooter in the middle of a busy road suddenly being rescued by a man on a bike and brought to safety has made the rounds on social media.

The dash cam video, which was posted on the Singapore Roads safety/Roads safety.SG Facebook page last Sunday (May 17), shows vehicles at a fast pace, and then suddenly there’s a small child in the middle lane, on a scooter, in the middle of cars and lorries.

But a quick-thinking cyclist appears on the scene and takes the child by the arm, risking his own life as vehicles whizzed by. He carries the child in his arms and tows him, the scooter and his own bike to the side to safety, successfully preventing what would have surely been a terrible accident.

As one netizen wrote, “Without thinking of his safety, he just stopped all incoming vehicles to save that little kid.”

The following day, the hero was found and identified. His name is Zwan Giant, he is 35 years old, and works as a technician.

Contrary to what a lot of netizens who saw the video first thought, the child is not his.

Business Insider quotes Mr Zwan as saying, “I’m not the father of that child.”

It was his wife, however, who came forward with the rescuer’s identity, saying that her husband was the brave cyclist who saved the child’s life.

Mr Zwan told Business Insider that the incident occurred shortly past  5:30 on Friday afternoon (May 15). He said he had seen the little Indian boy go from the park connector to the street, passing through an opening in the pavement on Yishun Avenue 8, as he was cycling in the area.

He then said that he waved so that the cars and trucks behind him would come to a halt, and without stopping to think of the risk he was taking, swooped in to help the boy, whom he said was approximately 3 or 4 years old.

When the video was first posted on the Singapore Roads safety/Roads safety.SG Facebook page, irate netizens assumed that Mr Zwan was the boy’s father, and castigated him for being irresponsible.

But the truth is that he was merely a kind and quick-thinking stranger who risked his own life for the boy.

Mr Zwan said that he had asked the child where his parents were, after rescuing him, but the boy was by then in hysterics. Just then, a woman came running from 30 to 40 meters away. When he handed the child over to her, he admonished her telling her to take care of her son.

The brave cyclist said, “That’s all I wanted to do – save him before anything. But it’s funny how people misinterpreted me being the father. How could a sane father let his boy scoot to the road and (yet cycle along the roadside by himself)?”

Netizens were full of praise for Mr Zwan.

-/TISG

Read also: SCDF rescues boy and his grandfather who were swept out to sea at East Coast Park

SCDF rescues boy and his grandfather who were swept out to sea at East Coast Park