Mr Muhammad Khairman Mohamed Sabari and his wife had planned an open house this weekend at their new four-room Woodlands Rise flat which they had moved into just a week ago.
Instead, around 100 people gathered at the home yesterday to bid farewell to the 30-year-old delivery driver, who was killed at about 7.30pm on Monday after a car crashed into the motorbike that he was riding.
His widow Nur Elina Sukhaimi, 31, told The Straits Times that their three-year-old daughter believed it was just another festive gathering.
She said: "Rihanna doesn't know about her father's death. She just thinks it's Hari Raya because there are many visitors to our home."
The couple's younger child, a son named Reyhan Luhaidan, was born just six months ago.
In Monday's accident, the car had been travelling in the opposite direction when it mounted a divider before crashing into Mr Khairman and another motorcyclist near the junction of Woodlands Avenue 12 and Woodlands Avenue 1.
A lorry was also involved in the horrific accident, which was captured on video. The lorry driver escaped with no visible injuries. The other injured motorcyclist has been discharged from hospital.
The car driver, a 32-year-old man, was arrested yesterday. The driver and his two passengers - a woman and a one-year-old infant - are believed to have escaped serious injuries.
Mr Khairman, the youngest of three sons, would typically fetch his wife on his way home from work. But on Monday, she had gone home herself as he was running late, said Ms Elina, who works in customer service.
In her last text message to him at around 6pm, Ms Elina discussed with her husband what to buy for their new home. "I tried calling him at around 7pm to confirm what he wanted for dinner... But his handphone was switched off, which was very unusual," she recalled.
At around 9pm, her brother told her that a motorcyclist had been involved in an accident in Woodlands. Ms Elina
was still unable to contact her husband, who worked for DFS Venture Singapore in Kallang.
Worried, she went to a nearby police station while her brother and cousins headed to the crash site. It was at the station that Ms Elina received the news from her brother that her husband had been killed.
After being told, she steeled herself to watch the video clip of the accident. She has since been unable to erase the images of her husband being struck down in the minute-long dashboard camera footage. She recognised him on the Yamaha RXZ motorcycle he had owned for two years.
She said: "He was a very safe road user. He was a driver... from national service till now... But judging from the video, there's no way he could have escaped."
The couple, who had been married for almost five years, met when they were students in Woodlands Ring Secondary School. She described him as a quiet person who loved being around family.
"He would help people in trouble and give them advice," Ms Elina said. "People looked up to him like a big brother. I'm really going to miss his smile."
One of the 20 DFS employees who attended the funeral said Mr Khairman had joined the company less than two years ago and was an easy-going person. Mr Mazlan Ahmad, 55, added: "We had lunch together almost every day. He was a good-hearted person."
Police investigations are ongoing.
