$5.33 Million Verdict After Metro Transit Bus Runs Over Christopher Swickard, Amputating His Left Leg

On February 18, 2023, Christopher Lee Swickard, 52, of Bloomington, was trying to board a Metro Transit bus on eastbound East Lake Street near Third Avenue South in Minneapolis. The route ran along a snowy city sidewalk. The bus driver, Said Muse, a probationary employee, closed the doors and pulled from the curb while Swickard was still approaching. Swickard tapped the side of the bus to get Muse's attention. The tap did not stop the vehicle. Swickard slipped and fell to the ground, and the rear wheels rolled over his left leg.

Swickard's injuries required amputation of his left leg below the knee. He also sustained multiple fractures to his leg, ankle, and foot. Muse resigned from Metro Transit shortly after the incident, according to court documents. The suit alleged Muse negligently pulled from the stop when it was unsafe to do so.

Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben attorneys Cole Dixon and Aaron Eken represented Swickard at trial. The case went to a Hennepin County jury in October 2025. Jurors calculated total damages at $5.33 million and allocated 80 percent of the fault to Metro Transit and its driver, with 20 percent assigned to Swickard. After applying the comparative fault reduction, the net award stood at approximately $4.26 million.

The recovery was then cut further by Minnesota state law. A statutory cap on municipal tort liability, a framework rooted in a law the Legislature first enacted in the 1960s, limits compensation in most cases against cities, counties, and other public entities. The current limit is $500,000 per claimant. Judge Laura Thomas applied that cap and reduced Swickard's recoverable damages to $500,000. The remaining gap between the jury's finding and what Swickard could actually collect drew attention to the long-standing limitation, which applies regardless of how severe a plaintiff's injuries are.