Minneapolis hit and run survivor shares message of resilience

A hit-and-run survivor in Bloomington is back on his feet more than two years after he was almost paralyzed.

On a frigid December day in 2022, Luke Zimmer saw a woman stuck in a snowbank along I-35W South near Johnson Street northeast in Minneapolis. He stopped to help tow her out.

“Just as I thought, ‘Okay there’s a good spot, I’ve moved enough snow I can get a strap around part of the wheel,’ and I had reached back to grab the tow strap, then everything went black,” said Zimmer. “I didn’t hear anything.”

State Patrol identified the vehicle that hit him as a Toyota Sienna van. The driver took off from the scene.

“The next thing I know, I’m lying upside down in a snowbank,” said Zimmer, who described not being able to feel his legs. “I couldn’t get up, and I couldn’t make sense of the situation. I literally had to lie there in the snow until someone could help, and that was the first time I ever remember feeling that helpless.”

The woman he stopped to help flagged down others who were driving by, including an off-duty paramedic who told him to lie still.

A GoFundMe page that was created for the family after the crash described bystanders covering Zimmer with a sleeping bag, putting hand warmers around him and talking to him as they waited for an ambulance in sub-zero wind chills.

Someone also placed a bright hat on his head.

“I wear it almost every winter just as a reminder of the kindness of strangers,” said Zimmer.

He underwent an eight-hour surgery to repair a shattered vertebra. Extensive physical therapy followed and by the time he left the hospital three weeks later, he could walk again.

“We are just so thankful for how far we have come because we didn’t know,” said Michelle Zimmer, his wife. “I was preparing myself for him to be permanently paralyzed.”

Walking around their backyard, the Zimmers showed us their flock of chickens and ducks. They’ve started a business called Bloomington Farm and Feed, which delivers Minnesota-sourced products to customers’ doorsteps.

“It helps lower the carbon footprint, it helps improve the quality of eggs people are providing for their families and also having that local Minnesota farmer support,” said Zimmer.

The idea developed during Zimmer’s recovery, when they couldn’t travel the distance to pick up the high-quality feed they typically used. Michelle Zimmer explained that part of the GoFundMe donations helped them get the business started.

Meanwhile, State Patrol told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS there’s no update in the case, which means the driver who hit Zimmer is still out there.

“I actually don’t blame him, I don’t,” said Zimmer. “It was an accident, and I feel bad that he was in such a place in his life that he couldn’t stay because it’s going to be with him for the rest of his life, not knowing what happened.”

Zimmer said if the driver proactively game to him and apologized, he would forgive them.