By BRYNA SIM

RIDE safely and see you soon. Those were Mr Lim Han Liang's words to his 20-year-old daughter before she left homethat Thursday night.

Eight hours later, Valerie Lim Xin Yi died in an accident,when her motorcycle skidded.

Valerie was Mr Lim's only child.

The Republic Polytechnic student's death was a particularly bitter blow for Mr Lim, 52, a gas deliveryman, because he had always been against his daughter riding a motorbike.

For a while, Valerie even hid the fact that she had bought a bike from him.

She had been riding for just six months before tragedy struck.

"If only Xin Yi had never bought that bike. Then perhaps..," Mr Lim lamented, his voice trailing off, in a phone interview with The New Paper.

He revealed he had recently persuaded his daughter to get a driving licence so she could switch to a car instead.

She was supposed to have started driving lessons this month.

Skidded: Valerie's black Honda CBR-150 (seen in above picture) was believed to have skidded along the SLE towards the BKE, near the slip road into Lentor Avenue.

Valerie's death is one of three fatal accidents involving female bikers or their pillion riders reported in the media in the last two months.

On 4 Feb, Valerie had left home around 9pm.

She lived with her father in two rented rooms in a four-room Yishun flat.

Mr Lim and his wife are divorced.

Mr Lim said his daughter simply told him that she was "going to meet friends".

It was the last day of the school term for Valerie, who was in the second year of a three-year diploma course in New Media.

Mr Lim said: "I told her, "Ride safely, don't come home too late, and see you soon"."

Her response?

"She just said "okay"," said Mr Lim.

That was the last time he saw her alive.

Distraught: (from left) Valerie Lim Xin Yi's father Lim Han Liang and aunt Wendy Lim at the mortuary.

Around 4.55am on 5 Feb, Valerie's black Honda CBR-150 was believed to have skidded along the SLE towards the BKE, near the slip road into Lentor Avenue.

A police spokesman said she suffered multiple injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics at 5.10am.

The New Paper understands that Valerie was not drunk before the accident.

Neither was she speeding at the time of the accident.

Mr Lim was asleep when the police called.

All he remembers from that conversation was an officer saying: "Sir, you need to prepare your heart for the worst."

Mr Lim said his heart nearly stopped when he heard that.

The grief-stricken father sobbed over the phone as he spoke of his relationship with his daughter.

Though they lived together, father and daughter did not talk to each other much.

But he described their relationship as one of unspoken love.

Mr Lim said in Mandarin: "My wife and I were always busy working, so we left her alone for years."