BARRE, Vt. -
A company is mourning the loss of one of its workers... a dad from St. Johnsbury who died on the job.
61-year-old Jerry Fisher fell from the back of the garbage truck he was holding on to.
Emergency responders say Fisher suffered severe head trauma and died at the hospital.
"It was a normal day," neighbors Normand and Denise Gregoire said.
For several years, Jerry Fisher had collected trash for Myers container service. A tough job that not many people sign up for, and neighbors tell me he enjoyed it. But that all came to an end Thursday when Fisher fell from the back of one of the trucks and died from his injuries.
"It's so sad," Gregoire said.
It was a routine trash pickup on Balsam Street in Barre, and Fisher was an experienced employee... so police are looking for any piece of evidence that may have caused Fisher to fall.
"Just trying to piece back together what actually happened," Barre Town Police Chief Michael Stevens said.
Neighbors who live in this house say that once a week they watched Fisher hang on to the back of the truck and every time, slowly drive away.
"Just like usual... it's terrible," Gregoire said.
Fisher wasn't using an automated packer, so while Fisher was loading the truck, another man was driving.
"He was pretty much beside himself when the whole thing happened... and doing what he could," First Responder Christopher Maloney said.
In a statement from the president of Myers Container, Jeff Myers said "We are a family owned company and our employees are an extension of our family, so a loss like this is extremely painful.
"I think it's a wake up call for a lot of people to take a look at how procedures are done," The Police Chief said.
The Vermont Department of Labor says they're also investigating what led to Fisher's death.
