A popular Mahdia dredge owner was on Wednesday crushed to death by an excavator he was repairing at Pamela Backdam in Region 7.
Alexander Murray, 57, who owned Murray’s Mining Company, died instantly after the excavator toppled on its side.
According to his family, the father of five, who resides at Barima Avenue in Bel Air Park, Georgetown, was listening to cricket around 9pm on Wednesday on his mobile phone while repairing the machine when it fell on its side.
When Stabroek News visited his residence yesterday, several friends and family had gathered and were giving support to his wife, Pauline Murray and children. His youngest child, Dinesha, a fourth former of Christ Church Secondary, was being consoled by relatives.
A relative related that on Wednesday, shortly after the incident occurred, they received the call that Murray had died.
They said that they were told that there was a problem with the excavator and that he was assisting to fix it. However, the machine was on unlevelled soil and it had toppled, throwing him out of the door and onto to the ground after which it fell on him.
Efforts were made to lift the excavator off of the miner but this was futile as when workers checked he had already passed away.
He was taken to the Mahdia Hospital where he was officially pronounced dead.
An Air Services plane was hired and he was flown to the city where his body remains at a city morgue. An autopsy will be done today to determine the exact cause of his death.
Murray was described by family and friends as a philanthropist and family oriented. “He loved to give; he gave to every cause and everyone. When you are dead people always say good things about you but for him every bit you hear is true …he didn’t care he gave… that was just him, a giving and loving person,” the relative said.
He was also a cricket fanatic as he had played club cricket in his younger days. “He lived cricket, gosh he just love the game.
It was strange that he wasn’t here for these games but he had business …although he was there he would keep calling to ask the score because he wanted to know what was going on,” a friend said.
Murray had left for Mahdia last Sunday and would usually stay for short periods.
