US teen dies after being trapped by minivan seat

CHICAGO: Ohio police launched an investigation Thursday into why officers failed to find a teen who died after being trapped in his minivan and making desperate calls for help, telling one emergency dispatcher, “I’m almost dead.”

Kyle Plush was trapped Tuesday afternoon in a 2004 Honda Odyssey in the parking lot of his Cincinnati school.

A rear seat flipped over and pinned him down as he tried to get his tennis gear from the backseat of the vehicle, and he died of asphyxia due to chest compression, US media reported.

The 16-year-old called 911 twice and described his van and location — but not all of the information was relayed to responding officers, who were unable to find the teen despite a search of the school’s grounds.

“Send officers immediately. I’m almost dead,” Plush said during a second call, according to ABC News which obtained recordings.

“I probably don’t have much time left. Tell my mom I love her if I die.”

A friend alerted the family that Plush was missing and they tracked his location using a mobile phone application.

A family member discovered the boy’s lifeless body in the unlocked van nearly six hours after his first 911 call.

“Something went wrong here, and we need to find out why we weren’t able to provide that help,” Cincinnati police chief Eliot Isaac said.

He launched an internal investigation and placed one of the responding dispatchers on administrative leave.

Honda told AFP that the 2004 model Odyssey involved in the accident had had no seat-related recalls.

The company last year recalled 2011-2017 Odyssey minivans for a problem with its second-row seats that could tip forward, but a company spokesman told AFP that the Ohio tragedy was unrelated to that recall.

The model years affected by the recall were “greatly separated in time and design” from the 2004 Odyssey, spokesman Chris Martin said.