An Albion carpenter, who was also a part-time fisherman, died yesterday morning after he was struck off his bicycle at Number One Village, Corentyne by a hire car.
Dead is Ivan Preme, 60, a father of two, from Lot 45 H and J Street, Albion Front, Corentyne.
According to persons who were at the scene of the incident, the driver of the car, HC 5720, claimed that a marabunta wasp had flown into his car and onto his face, causing him to lose control and slam into Preme. At the time, 9.30 am, Preme was returning home from fishing.
Preme’s wife Arai Preme, 56, stated that her husband was a carpenter but would also go fishing regularly. The distraught wife, recounted to Stabroek News that the last time she saw her husband, “He say he a go fishing. Me get up quarter to five he been deh in the hammock a watch TV, so me go back a bed and when me wake up he nah deh home. Me see he bicycle and quake gone, so me know he gone fishing and he does come back like 8. Me sit down and one boy come with motorbike and say he get accident at Number One turn deh.”
Preme’s daughter, Shermatie Preme, 30, stated that after receiving the message the family immediately rushed to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital, where they were told her father was taken. “When I go in he was taking oxygen and he was panicking for breath, so me keep telling him, tell he something but he nah respond to me,” the grieving daughter explained. “When we come outside about 20 minutes after the doctor call for us when we go in back them tell we he was bleeding bad on the inside and all he ribs on
the right side break and that them try them best but could not save him.”
She noted that her father had visible bruises on his shoulder and foot. Preme was well known as being the quiet, bicycle-riding fisherman in the village.
The driver of the hire car was said to be former boxing coach, Jeff Roberts, who is also well known to Berbicians. He is in police custody assisting with the investigation.
