The father of the five-year-old boy who was involved in a divisive encounter with a car while on the way to school has spoken out.
36-year-old Ashley Zhang-Borges’s video went viral on social media after the British dad recorded a vehicle narrowly passing his son while the two were riding a bike to school.
In the video, the car coming from the other direction is seen ‘squeezing’ through the road blocked by a parked car on one side and the boy and his father on the other.
The clip has since sparked a divisive debate on social media where some viewers slammed the father for allowing his child to ride a bike clumsily on a public road while others defended him saying cyclists have just as much right to be on the road as drivers.
Now, Zhang-Borges also spoke out and doubled down on defending his son and their actions while insisting it is a fact that the driver was wrong for not waiting for the boy to pass first.
“The facts are clear on this one, the driver was wrong, and my son has every right to ride in the road. That’s clear cut,” the father said.
“You can see from the clip that they should have stopped way sooner than they did. They had plenty of distance to make that decision. We had lights on, reflective clothing, so much time to stop.”
He continued: “People will argue ‘Plenty of room, you could drive a bus through there,’ well I’m sorry, that’s not actually factually correct even slightly. The facts are clear on this one, the driver was wrong, and my son has every right to ride in the road. That’s clear cut.”
The father’s response comes after the majority of people sided with the driver saying he/she slowed down and left plenty of space between the vehicle and the boy.
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