16-year-old student dies after being trapped in the seat of his minivan; he called 911 to say "Tell my mom that I love her

A teenage high school student has died after being trapped in the seat of his minivan in Cincinnati. Kyle Plush called 911, aware that his situation was dire after he became stuck. The 16-year-old sophomore used an automated assistant on his smartphone to make the call Tuesday outside Seven Hills School in Cincinnati. He did not tell the authorities what had happened to him. He said only that he was trapped in his minivan and could not hear them but he hoped they could hear his cries for help.

"Help, help, help, help," he told the dispatcher, according to 911 audio obtained by The Washington Post. Then he let out a scream: "Help!"


The teenager seemed to be laboring to breathe. He paused between each word to try to catch for his breath. The dispatcher repeatedly asked him where they could find him but he couldn't hear because his phone wasn't close to him.

"I can’t hear you," the teen said. Distant banging could be heard in the background. "I’m in desperate need of help. … I’m going to die here."

"Help —" he said once more, and then the call abruptly ended.

Five minutes later, at 3:21 p.m., police responded and searched the area near the private school on Red Bank Road but did not see the teen, according to a statement from the Cincinnati Police Department.

In a conversation between the dispatcher and a deputy, the dispatcher said that it had been difficult to hear the teen, saying he sounded "kind of far away from the phone." The dispatcher said she could hear banging in the background and someone saying, "Help, help, I’m stuck." The authorities then discussed whether the 911 call might have been a prank.

Kyle was found nearly six hours later by his father. He was unresponsive in the vehicle, police said. First responders rushed to the scene but could not revive him. He was later pronounced dead.

"Horrific, horrific situation to come across as a parent," Cincinnati Police spokesman Lt. Steve Saunders said Thursday in a phone interview.

According to reports, the teen had climbed onto the rear bench seat in his family’s Honda Odyssey minivan. He was trying to reach his tennis equipment when the seat "flipped up and over toward the back hatch, pinning him upside down beneath the seat."

After Kyle’s frantic call for help Tuesday afternoon, a dispatcher tried to call him back but the teen, who was apparently trapped inside his vehicle, was not able to answer his phone.

As heard in the 911 audio, the teen’s phone rang and rang, then the call went to his voice mail: "Hello, this is Kyle. I’m not available right now. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can."

Then, at some point, Kyle called the police a second time. During that call, which lasted several minutes, he sounded weaker and something could be heard creaking in the background as the teen took breaths. The teen told the dispatcher to pass along a message for him after he died.

He said:

I probably don’t have much time left, so tell my mom that I love her if I die. This is not a joke. This is not a joke. I’m trapped inside my gold Honda Odyssey van in the sophomore parking lot of Seven Hills [unintelligible]. Send officers immediately. I’m almost dead.

Can you hear me?

The teenager then prompted his phone, saying:

Hey Siri. Hey Siri. Hey Siri. Hey Siri. Hey Siri."

Authorities said responding officers, who were on the scene at the time, never received the detailed information from Kyle’s second 911 call. The dispatcher who took that call, identified as Amber Smith, has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation, police said.

Authorities said that a classmate called Kyle’s parents late Tuesday, saying that he did not show up for a scheduled tennis match. The teen’s parents then used an app to track his cellphone and called the police, reporting that their son was missing, police said.

 before 9 p.m., a passerby also called authorities from the school, saying that a man was running around the parking lot, screaming, "Call 911." The caller said he could hear "loud bangs" and could see cars parked and people walking around, according to the police audio.

Then another caller, who identified himself as a night shift worker at the school, called police to report that the teen, who was unresponsive, was trapped in the van — "turned over in his seat and stuck."

"He’s been there for a while," he said.

Isaac, the police chief, told reporters that upon arrival, responding officers found Kyle in the van, "not breathing and unresponsive." First responders were not able to revive the teen, Isaac said.

A Honda spokesman told the Associated Press that vehicle involved in the incident was a 2004 Honda Odyssey. Although there was a recall last year on seats in some Odysseys, the spokesman said there were no such recalls for the model Kyle was in.

Seven Hills School said in a statement Thursday that students and staff members are "grieving the loss of this beloved member of our school family." It described Kyle as "a young person of keen intelligence, good humor, great courage," adding that "we feel this loss profoundly."

The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office said in a statement that preliminary autopsy results showed that Kyle died of "asphyxia due to chest compression."

Below is a video explaining how Kyle got trapped.