Kernersville police said Ronald Lee Dean, 57, of Minnesota died Thursday night, July 31, at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, approximately 10 hours after the City of Roxboro garbage truck he was driving crashed in Kernersville.

Roxboro City Manager Jon Barlow said Dean was transporting the garbage truck to the Lodal manufacturing plant in Michigan for repairs. Dean was employed with a transport company contracted by Lodal, according to Barlow, and left Roxboro headed for Michigan on the morning the crash occurred.

Barlow said the truck needed repairs to the diesel engine’s emissions system as well as the steel garbage box.

The City of Roxboro bought the truck in December for $160,000.

“According to a witness, [Dean] appeared to slowly drift off the road as if he were asleep,” Barlow said.

Police said the truck crashed into a tree line between Business Interstate 40 and Old Winston Road in Kernersville.

Dean reportedly was drivingthe truck westbound in the right lane when the vehicle ran off the road and struck two trees. Dean was pinned inside the truck. A report in the Winston-Salem Journal said Dean had to be extracted from the wreckage by members of the Kernersville Fire/Rescue Department.

The truck was heavily damaged, however, Barlow said Tuesday he was not sure if it would be declared a total loss.

“A solution to the wrecked truck has not been made yet,” Barlow said. “We are waiting to complete the insurance process. They have looked at it, but we have not gotten any word on their appraisals.”

Barlow said Tuesday that the city is now using two loaner garbage trucks, “one from Lodal and the other from the company we just purchased a second truck from.”

The second truck, purchased from RDK, a manufacturer in Florida, at a cost of $130,000, is expected to arrive within the next month.

“Right now, we are using two loaners,” Barlow said. “But, neither of them is costing us anything.”