16-yr-old Crushed to Death by Minivan Seat Despite 911 Calls for Help

This story is haunting. As a parent, how do you move on, knowing your child suffered alone after trying to get help?

I don't know that I could move on. It is a very disturbing story.

There are so many questions with this. I feel so bad for the family.

I’ve been gone and have only seen bits and pieces of this story. 16 years old and got trapped in a van? Crushed by a seat? Does not add up. Calls 911 at 3:00 and does not get found until 10:00??

Terrible accident.

The teenager died while trying to retrieve tennis equipment from the 2004 Odyssey's rear. Parked at Seven Hills for tennis practice, he put a knee on the third-row bench seat and reached over the bench seat into the rear well. The bench seat then flipped backward. The force of that motion and the weight of the seat trapped him upside down, head in the rear well and legs in the air against the minivan’s rear door.

I’ve been gone and have only seen bits and pieces of this story. 16 years old and got trapped in a van? Crushed by a seat? Does not add up. Calls 911 at 3:00 and does not get found until 10:00??

Terrible accident.

The pieces I have heard. Kid has a minivan and his tennis gear is in the back. The 3rd row seating gets flipped up and locked pinning kid. He has his phone and calls 911. They send officer out who did not locate van or find anything unusual. Officer thinks it maybe a prank call. They call kid’s phone number back and it goes to voice mail. Kid calls 911 later and says it’s not a joke. 911 operator doesn’t give 2nd officer description of vehicle and the van wasn’t found again. Kids father goes searching for him and finds the van and kid deceased. Second 911 operator placed on leave for not giving description.

A lot of questions in there.

The lower latch secures the rear bench seat to the floor of the car -- but if the seat is not locked down into place, it can roll backward into the rear well of the minivan.

When Plush became trapped, he voice-activated the Siri function of his iPhone, which was out of his reach, to make two 911 calls asking for help, predicting his death and expressing love for his mother.

:cry:

This is so sad. I can not imagine the family's suffering. LOTS of questions and blame around this from the Officer's, 911 operations, and even the Honda minivan itself. I also wonder if he was going to practice, one would think someone would notice he was not there, but saw him earlier, and saw his van, but not him. If I was a friend of his on the team I imagine I may even be questioning myself. So so sad

911 operator who didn't notify police of the second call should be charged.

One puzzling thought I have is if he was able to dial 911 and ask for help, I'm surprised he didn't call his parents at all. Surely they would've known he was at tennis practice or should've been and been able to locate him quicker.

Also, did the initial 911 operator not ask him where he was located?

911 operator who didn't notify police of the second call should be charged.

 

One puzzling thought I have is if he was able to dial 911 and ask for help, I'm surprised he didn't call his parents at all. Surely they would've known he was at tennis practice or should've been and been able to locate him quicker.

 

Also, did the initial 911 operator not ask him where he was located?

He was not able to reach his phone. He used the voice activated Siri.

He was not able to reach his phone. He used the voice activated Siri.

Right. You can call anyone in your contact list with Siri.

Why not just open the back door of the van to get his stuff?

Why not just open the back door of the van to get his stuff?

Can’t ask him that now.

Horrible tragedy. It was on FOX News this morning. Extensive coverage in the Enquirer today. Sad that a Hamilton County Sheriff went back to do his own check, saw one van with no one inside. Later it was noted that it was probably the right van.

I would have to agree that the second 911 operator was very negligent in not relaying the more detailed information.

My heart breaks for that poor kid and his family. He did everything he could to save himself. Can’t imagine the horror of knowing your child suffered, well aware that he was dying.