Man hit by MetroLink train dies; had severed foot, paralysis

A 56-year-old East St. Louis man who was struck by a Metrolink train on tracks in Swansea on March 4 has died.

Jeffrey Coker, who suffered a severed foot and paralysis following the accident, died Sunday at the St. Louis hospital where he’d been treated for more than a month, his attorney Ryan Mahoney said Thursday.

“At the time (of his death) he was still a quadriplegic,” Mahoney said. “He couldn’t move from the chest down. He couldn’t breathe on his own without a ventilator. That’s difficult.”

GUEST BOOK: Jeffrey Coker

Coker’s family has ordered an autopsy, Mahoney said.

Police responded to the tracks near the Swansea platform at 6:40 p.m. March 4 and found Coker lying on the tracks with a severed foot.

Investigations into the incident — by St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department, by Metro and by Mahoney — were underway well before Coker died. Mahoney said Coker’s death doesn’t change his investigation or his plan to bring suit.

“We’re still accumulating information. Various witnesses have come forward,” he said. “I fully expect that litigation will be necessary at some point.”

A Metro spokeswoman would not comment Thursday afternoon on Coker’s death or accident, citing pending legal action.

This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Man hit by MetroLink train dies; had severed foot, paralysis."