Michael “Harley” Cummings Dies After Being Pinned by Heavy Machinery in Randolph, Alabama

 For Kristie Cummings, the loss of a child is not something she ever imagined facing twice. Her youngest son, Michael “Harley” Cummings, was only 22 when he died in a workplace accident in Randolph, Alabama, leaving his mother grieving again and searching for answers about what happened.

Harley was working at an industrial site on July 29 when he became pinned by heavy machinery, according to the account Kristie shared. A deputy responding to the scene reportedly found him in the bucket of a loader with a severe injury around his waist. His death certificate lists blunt force body trauma and describes him as having been pinned by a loader at an industrial site.

For Kristie, the circumstances surrounding that day have made the loss even harder to process. She says Harley had asked to leave work early because the father of his best friend had died, and he wanted to attend the viewing. The two friends had known each other since they were 14. Harley never arrived, and his mother says she is still trying to understand the events that ended his life.

Months later, Kristie says she wants answers and accountability. “I want justice for my son. I want answers and I want an apology,” she said. She has shared details from the police report and death certificate, but says she has not received the clarity she needs about exactly how the accident happened. The available account does not establish that anyone was at fault, and questions about the circumstances should not be mistaken for a finding of wrongdoing.

The financial side of the loss has added another painful layer. Kristie says workers’ compensation paid $7,500 toward Harley’s final expenses, an amount that reflects Alabama’s statutory lump-sum payment when a worker dies without dependents. State guidance separately provides for burial expenses up to $6,500, depending on the circumstances. Kristie believes the law leaves families like hers with too few options when an unmarried worker without children dies on the job.

Yet the most personal detail may be the one Kristie finds hardest to explain: she could not bring herself to hold a funeral for Harley. The thought of formally saying goodbye to her 22-year-old son was more than she felt able to face. Grief does not follow a schedule, and for Kristie, the loss has left a reality that still feels impossible to accept. She is trying to live with the absence while also seeking answers that might help her understand what happened.

This is not the first time Kristie has had to mourn a child. In 2001, her premature daughter, Anastasia, died at just three weeks old because of a birth defect. Harley was born later and never had the chance to meet his baby sister, but Kristie says he loved hearing about Anastasia and talking about the sister he knew only through family stories. That connection became a meaningful part of how he understood his place in the family, even though the two children never shared a childhood together.

Now, Kristie holds onto the belief that her children are finally together. Anastasia lived only three weeks, while Harley had just begun his adult life when the workplace accident took him. Their mother is left carrying two separate losses across 25 years, along with the questions surrounding her son’s death. She says she will never be the same, and her call for answers remains to her grief. For now, her story is one of a mother trying to honor both children while asking for a clearer account of the tragedy that took her youngest son.