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Republic Waste employee dies on job
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A Republic Waste employee died in front of a home on Mill Run Terrace Road while dumping garbage along his route Monday.

Bryan County Sheriff’s Detective Mickey Sands said no foul play is suspected. According to Sands, Savannah resident John Thomas MacGruder, 53, suffered an apparent stroke and died while sitting on the edge of his truck after connecting a garbage can to his truck.

"He apparently wasn’t feeling to well, as he apparently paused and sat down," Sands said. "He was positioned between the garbage can and the truck, which obstructed him from plain view."

Sands said MacGruder had been dead for several hours until the girl who lived at the residence came home on the school bus and told her mother she thought the garbage man had fallen asleep in their driveway.

Sands said authorities arrived immediately afterward, and an autopsy has since been done.

"From all accounts, MacGruder was a pretty good guy," Sands said. "Back when that plane crashed on Belfast Keller Road, he was the first one that stopped and rendered aid to the victims. He left his jacket under the head of one of the victims."

Attempts to get comment from Republic Waste were unsuccessful Tuesday.

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