Kyle Plush, a 16-year-old high school sophomore suffered a tragic fate this week as he was crushed to death in the back of his family's minivan. Somehow, Kyle had gotten trapped under the third row seat while the car was parked in the school parking lot and he was unable to free himself.
After he was trapped, Kyle managed to reach his cellphone and dialed 911 to beg police to come help him. Despite calling 911 twice, however, police ignored his calls. The subject of these calls is now under investigation as the lack of response led to the boy succumbing to asphyxiation and dying.
"I'm going to die here," the sophomore told the dispatcher during his first 911 call, which was placed shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday. "I probably don't have much time left. Tell my mom I love her if I die."
According to police, they say that in the call recording, the dispatcher can be heard asking Kyle for his location several times but it was unclear if he heard the operators questions.
As FOX reports, Cincinnati police and a Hamilton County deputy sheriff responded to the area but couldn't locate Plush. The dispatcher attempted to call Plush's phone but there was no answer.
Police apparently thought Kyle had prank called them and one officer even suggested as much. However, Kyle set it clear on the second call, made at at 3:35 p.m., during which he explained to another dispatcher that "this is not a joke."
"I am trapped inside my gold Honda Odyssey van in the parking lot of the Seven Hills. ... Send officers immediately. I'm almost dead."
As WCPO reports, at several points in the second three-minute call, during which the operator does not respond and loud banging or heavy breathing can be heard, he attempts to call on the Siri automated iPhone assistant without success.
In spite of giving police an exact description of where he was and what make and model vehicle he was trapped in - nothing was done - and Kyle died.
"The young man was trapped in the third row bench seat, and it is called positional asphyxiation," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters, who is launching a comprehensive investigation, said. "We are actively trying to identify experts to assist in us in this investigation."
Not until five hours later did his family member discover Kyle in the back of the van. By then, however, it was too late. Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco would rule Kyle's death accidental "asphyxia caused by chest compression."
According to Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac, the 911 operator had never relayed the make and model of the vehicle because the "dispatcher did not communicate with the caller." Indeed, the silence during the call proves this lack of communication.
"Something has gone terribly wrong," Isaac said at a Thursday news conference. "We need to find out why."
According to Isaac, the dispatcher who took the second call has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. Police are also looking into how, exactly, the teen became trapped in the first place.
Comment: If Plush was shoved into that position, the shover wouldn't likely leave him with his cell phone. If Plush put himself into that position, why would he do that?
Why the boy didn't call a family member also remains unclear. However, had he done so, rest assured that it would not have been perceived as a prank.
His error was obvious: he was raised to trust the honor and competence of police and learned too late the truth as applies to most of them, which yields America at least one death per week by a dumbed down family thinking that only 'help' will result from a 911 call, when all that occurs is arrest and imprisonment... IF they are lucky.
Also, being of a similar sort myself, (as re adventures 'outside the Shire'), I believe I can answer. It is the same thing that inspires spelunkers to go through impossibly small crevasses, hoping:
1. To find some impossibly large cavern, and/or
2. Simply to prove to themselves they can do it. (A/k/a, the old Everest quote: 'Because it's there.')
And that is that; or, per The Bard, "there's an end."
If he had wits enough about him to call 911 and to not/never panic, (which it appears he did and did not, respectively, while most folks would have reacted oppositely), then he, likely had*, as I do have, absolutely NO touch of claustrophobia and never have had such.
I have more than a few phenomenal escape stories where I drove so fast, until out of sight, and then stopped and watched followers pass at both high and super slow speeds; or sidled into holes so tiny, or between walls in a gap so thin that no one would think of looking there. Why? Because most chasers are mere followers who are so stupid as to think that the person they are seeking would do exactly as they would (or as the average person would) which of course is why the average person usually gets caught in such circumstances. (C.f., Poe, 'The Purloined Letter', and, more specifically Dupin's soliloquy on such all-too-typical thought patterns.)
However, I have hidden and or run from authorities or folks who would, if I were caught, hurt, jail me/kill me, eight times I can think of off of the top of my head and certainly more times than I have space or time to tell, (and which would be, for me, impolitic). And yet, in all those times, I never once was caught, although once, I swore the person I was avoiding should have heard my heart pounding; he didn't.
(I've even fooled dogs... but the wind was in my favor, you see.)
R.C.
*Sadly, 'had', because of all too typically programmed and previously dumbed-down responding Gestapo-Police, s who long ago forgot the words on their cars and shields, 'To Protect and Serve.' May God help the poor kid's parents, as there, but for the grace of God, (and as to me, my 'Guardian' /(Recent) Angels', I am sure) went/go my own parents.
R.C.