A 16-year-old boy in Cincinnati, Ohio died after getting pinned behind the third-row seat of a 2004 Honda Odyssey. The young man, identified as Kyle Plush, died of asphyxia due to chest compression, even after calling 911 not once but twice. The death has been ruled accidental, but there are still plenty of questions that need to be answered behind the circumstances of his death, particularly the way responders handled his calls for help.

This is the kind of news that drains all the energy out of your body. I can’t even begin to imagine the pain Kyle Plush’s family must be going through, especially after more details revealed that his life could’ve been saved if his calls for help were taken more seriously.

According to the Cincinnati Inquirer, Plush was reaching over the third-row seat of the van to retrieve tennis equipment from the trunk when bench seat suddenly folded, flipping him over and pinning him beneath the seat in the trunk area. I can’t quite picture how it looks, but presumably, the bench seat got locked in place, preventing him from moving it. Somehow, though, Plush managed to call 911 twice, first at 3:15 p.m. A police officer responded to the call, looked inside the van, but reported that he “didn’t see anyone” inside it. The officer even told the dispatcher that he got into an argument with a woman in a van earlier today and wondered if Plush’s call was nothing more than a prank call.

20 minutes later, Plush managed to make a second 911 call, telling the operator that he was trapped inside a gold Honda Odyssey in the “parking lot of Seven Hills Hillsdale.” Inexplicably, that call was not relayed to officers and Plush died of asphyxia due to chest compression. It wasn’t until 9 p.m. — that’s almost six hours before the first call was made — that a family member found the 16-year old dead inside the van. Upon calling 911, one of the responding officers told dispatch that they received a call in the area earlier in the day, but thought it was nothing more than someone playing a prank.

Needless to say, someone has to answer for this tragic debacle. The dispatcher that received Plush’s call has already been put on administrative leave, but that’s not enough. An investigation regarding the police’s response is already underway, and by the time it’s done, someone needs to take responsibility for failing to save this kid’s life. It’s a tragedy that should have been avoided.

On behalf of everyone here at Top Speed, we send our deepest condolences to the family of Kyle Plush. May he rest in peace.

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