Loft Rehab of Decatur: Van Crash Broke Resident's Bones - IL
The crash happened on September 16, 2025. When a safety inspector examined the van afterward, what they found was a securement system that had no business being on the road. One shoulder belt would not pull out. The other would not retract. One of the two seatbelts was missing entirely. The last time anyone had formally inspected the van's occupant securement system was May of 2024, more than sixteen months before the crash.
The inspector's finding was direct: employees securing residents should have known the system was not in safe working order. The van should not have been in service.
A resident identified in the inspection report as R5, described as cognitively intact, was in the van that day. On October 9, inspectors found her seated in her wheelchair in her room and she agreed to talk about what happened.
"Boy do I ever remember that wreck," she told the inspector.
She described the moment of impact in plain terms. The driver, she said, screamed out first. Then she went flying forward. She didn't get ejected because she got wedged between her own wheelchair and the back of the wheelchair belonging to another resident, R2, in front of her. R2 was not so lucky.
"(R2) went flying right out of her wheelchair and she hollered 'OUCH Help me Help me,'" R5 told the inspector. "Then the cops and ambulance guys came."
R5 said she was not physically hurt, though she was shaken. She also said something that had stayed with her in the three weeks since the crash. She hadn't seen R2 since that day.
"That kind of worries me," she said.
R5 also told the inspector that R2's seatbelts had been visibly loose before the crash. And R5 herself had neither a lap belt nor a shoulder belt on at all when the van went down.
"I guess it could have been worse, but I was scared," she said.
It was worse, for R2. At 2:30 on the afternoon of October 9, a nurse practitioner identified as V14 confirmed to the inspector that the September 16 crash had caused R2 to fracture her humerus, the bone of the upper arm, and both her fibula and tibia, the two bones of the lower leg. Three fractures. R2 had not returned to the facility by the time R5 was interviewed, and the inspection report does not say where she was.
The violation was cited at a level of actual harm.
The inspector's recommendation was that the van's securement system be inspected every six months. The last one on record was from May 2024. There is no indication in the report that any inspection occurred in the sixteen months between that date and the crash, or that anyone at the facility identified the broken belts and the missing belt before loading residents into the vehicle.
R5 put it simply. She was lucky she got trapped instead of thrown. She was scared. And somewhere, R2 was recovering from a broken arm and two broken leg bones, and the woman who rode in the seat behind her hadn't seen her since.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Loft Rehab of Decatur from 2025-10-09 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: This article is based on inspection data downloaded directly from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) via Medicare.gov. CMS releases inspection reports in bulk; we publish the findings as documented by state surveyors in the official Form CMS-2567 Statement of Deficiencies.
Plan of correction: The CMS report we receive does not include the facility's plan of correction. Facilities submit plans of correction separately to state survey agencies and those responses may not be reflected in CMS data at the time of publication. The absence of a plan of correction in our data does not mean one was not filed. Readers who want information about corrective steps taken are encouraged to contact the facility directly or their state survey agency.
Corrections may have occurred: Inspection reports reflect conditions observed on the date of the survey. Facilities may have implemented corrections, staffing changes, additional training, or other remediation since the report was issued. We report what CMS provides and encourage readers to seek current information from the facility.
Editorial process: Inspection findings are extracted from CMS source documents and synthesized using AI, reviewed for factual accuracy against the original report by our editorial team.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: September 10, 2026 · Our methodology
LOFT REHAB OF DECATUR in DECATUR, IL was cited for violations during a health inspection on October 9, 2025.
The crash happened on September 16, 2025.
Health inspections identify deficiencies that facilities must correct. Violations range from minor documentation issues to serious safety concerns. Review the full report below for specific details and facility response.