Teen Pinned in Minivan After Seat Crushes Body. Calls 911 But Dies Before Anyone Finds Him
Kyle Plush, 16, should have been at a tennis match on a Tuesday afternoon. Instead, he was trapped inside his gold 2004 Honda Odyssey van.
The van was parked in the Seven Hills School parking lot in Cincinnati. A tennis match was scheduled after school, but Plush tragically never made it to the match or even out of the van.
His tennis equipment was in the trunk of the van. The high-school sophomore likely reached over the back seat in the third row to grab the items.
Somehow, the bench seat flipped and pinned the teen upside down. As his chest was being crushed, he managed to call 911 around 3:16 p.m. by using Siri.
The call lasted three minutes with the operator and Plush struggling to hear one another. The teen pleaded for help and told the operator he was stuck in his van in the school parking lot in between crying and gasping for air.
“If you don’t send help I’m gonna die soon,” Plush heartbreakingly stated on the call, according to CNN. He knew his fate if help did not arrive promptly.
Local law enforcement officers searched the area for 11 minutes without finding anybody stuck in a van. They completed their run and closed the incident.
Meanwhile, Plush was still fighting for his life and called 911 a second time. He described his minivan to the operator and explained that he was not joking.
Plush concluded, “I probably don’t have much time left. Tell my Mom I love her, if I die.”
The operator did not respond, and has since been placed on administrative leave. Plush’s mom reported her son missing around 8 p.m. when he did not come home after his supposed tennis match.
The family used an app to locate his phone, which led Plush’s father to the horrifying scene around 9 p.m. Plush had died of “asphyxia due to chest compression” in his own van despite two 911 calls.
A Honda spokesperson told CNN, “Honda does not have any specific information from which to definitively determine what occurred in this incident. We can confirm that there were no seat-related recalls affecting the 2004 Honda Odyssey.”
The 2011 to 2017 models of the Odyssey minivans were recalled for a similar concern, though. When the second-row seats of the recalled models are not latched properly, there is risk of the seats tipping forward.
Many factors played a role in the tragic death of Kyle Plush with plenty of questions still unanswered. What we do know is that Plush had a “gentle spirit” and will be greatly missed by his family, friends, classmates and community.
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