Teen calls 911 as he is crushed to death

16-year-old was trapped upside-down by seat in van

When Kyle Plush called 911, he knew his situation was dire.

The 16-year-old sophomore did not tell the authorities what had happened to him when he apparently used an automated assistant on his smartphone to make the call Tuesday outside Seven Hills School in Cincinnati. He said only that he was trapped in his minivan and could not hear them — no doubt hoping they could still 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 teen, who seemed to be laboring to breathe, repeatedly asked for the police — briefly pausing between each word to try to catch his breath.

The dispatcher repeatedly asked the teen where they could find 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 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.

Nearly six hours later, Kyle’s father found him unresponsive in the vehicle, police said. First responders rushed to the scene but could not revive the teen, and 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.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that a law enforcement told the newspaper that the teen had climbed onto the rear bench seat in family’s Honda Odyssey minivan. The teen was trying to reach his tennis equipment, according to the newspaper, when the seat “flipped up and over toward the back hatch, pinning him upside down beneath the seat.”