Lincoln business owner recovering after bus falls on his chest

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - A Lincoln man’s livelihood nearly cost him his life and how he’s on a long road to recovery.

Tyler Loomis is the owner of “Tailored Dreams,” a party bus company in Lincoln. Over the weekend, he was working underneath one of the 16-ton buses when it fell on his chest.

“The bottle jack gave out and the bus came down on top of him,” said Bob Hinton, a chauffeur with the company.

The bus had been brought back to where they are stored because of difficulties it was having during a night out. Co-workers said Loomis was taking a look at the problem area, near the rear of the bus, when it fell on top of him. Thankfully, his brother was close by to help seconds after it happened.

“They got another jack, jacked it up and they got him out and started doing chest compressions,” Hinton said.

EMTs that arrived shortly after worked to restart his heart, back from a flat line that happened after he was crushed.

Loomis remains in the hospital on a ventilator with multiple cracked ribs and other complications but very slowly, his co-workers said, he’s starting to get better.

“He keeps trying to get out of bed and go. He’s a man that does not sit still,” said Lisa Keller, another chauffeur with the business.

Those who work at the party bus company describe themselves as a family who have been brought together by Loomis. They describe him as not just a boss, but a patriarch figure and friend to all of them.

“He has told us that we are all the boss of our bus. If we have a problem, we take care of it and he will back us, and we know we’ve got that backbone,” said Gayle Schmidt, a chauffeur.

Right now, the group only has one goal and that’s to see Loomis walk back into the bus barn on a busy night.

“I’m just going to be over the moon when he gets back,” Keller said. “When he’s here, you just get that warmth. The sensation, the relief knowing that you’ve got a great leader.”

The group is also working to raise money for Loomis’ stay in the hospital and his recovery through a GoFundMe. If you would like to donate, you can click here.

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