Mother rushed to work site to kiss her son one last time

Summary: As her son was lying in the street near death from a work-related injury, a mom rushed to the job site to kiss him one last time.

The incident: With only two days left working as a laborer for ICON Construction and Development, Lucas Gray, 18, of West Linn, OR, was looking forward to starting college at the University of Utah, where he planned to major in business.

Meanwhile, Gray and another staff member had been told to clean out valve boxes located about 2.5 feet beneath the road at a job site in Oregon City, OR. To perform the task, the staffers had to lie flat on the ground in the middle of an intersection and pull rocks and debris from the valve openings.

A short distance away, another crew member was operating a 30,500-pound wheel loader with a forklift attachment. The operator maneuvered the wheel loader up a slight incline in the direction of Gray, who was lying on the ground facing the opposite direction.

The driver of the wheel loader didn’t notice Gray as the huge vehicle drove over his body and crushed his skull into the ground.

The response: The wheel loader traveled about 5 to 8 feet past Gray before the operator realized that something bad had happened. He jumped from the cab and called out for help. Emergency responders arrived a short time later, but the 18-year-old was already dead from his severe head injuries.

The aftermath: When she heard that her son had been injured on the job, Catherine Gray, Lucas’s mother, rushed to the work site to see her son.

She later recalled her last seconds with him. “I kissed him on the head and I feel like he said to me, ‘Mom, I’m here,’ and I said, ‘Where are you?’ and he said, ‘I’m with Jesus, and it’s beautiful.’”

(From the August 3, 2026, issue of Safety Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click here.)