City to make changes after teen pleaded with 911, died trapped in van

Cincinnati's acting city manager today responded to dozens of questions from the family of a teenage boy who was found dead in his van hours after he called 911 with pleas for help.

Kyle Plush, 16, was retrieving equipment from his Honda Odyssey in April when he became "trapped in the third-row bench seat," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters said.

The teen made two desperate calls to 911 before he died from asphyxia due to chest compression, authorities said.

"I'm in desperate need of help!" he said in the first 911 call.

"I'm trapped inside my gold Honda Odyssey van in the ... parking lot of Seven Hills," he said in the second 911 call. "This is not a joke."

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Trapped teen's mysterious van death: What we know

Kyle Plush, 16, died from "asphyxia due to chest compression."

"I probably don't have much time left. Tell my mom I love her if I die," Plush said. "Send officers immediately. I'm almost dead."

Acting City Manager Patrick Duhaney this morning responded to the Plush family's questions about the response by police and 911 call takers.

Duhaney said operators and officers could have done more that day, reported ABC affiliate WCPO in Cincinnati.

The city is also moving forward with an outside investigation into Plush's death, WCPO reported.

"This can't happen to another family," said the teen's father, Ron Plush, reported WCPO. "We need to identify all the failures that day and work toward solutions."

When Kyle Plush told 911 "I'm going to die here" and "I'm in desperate need of help," the call taker didn't hear what he said, Duhaney said.

Had the call taker heard, she would have typed what she heard into the system and give that additional information to the officers, he said.

"The reviewer was able to hear the information on the digital recording, which is what resulted in the low rating in this area [on the 911 taker's performance review,]" Duhaney said. "This indicated the call taker's call volume may have been turned down."

Due to that finding, Duhaney said going forward call takers will get extra training for adjusting their call volume up and down and reviewing digital recording immediately based on the need of the call.

Duhaney also today announced numerous other changes in the wake of Kyle Plush's death, including extra training for all call takers, dispatchers and first responders.

"As a result of the lessons learned through this tragedy, CPD [Cincinnati Police Department] and the 911 Center are updating standard operating procedures to ensure additional requests for caller information are made," Duhaney said. "We are also evaluating technology improvements to ensure there is a seamless exchange of information between dispatch and the responding units."

"Officers will be trained to call and ask for additional information if they cannot locate the caller," Duhaney said.

"We are preparing a plan to update the software and improve the in-car mapping capabilities such that officers will see a more detailed map in their vehicles by this summer," Duhaney also said. "We are also evaluating purchasing an Automatic Police Vehicle Location and GPS-based dispatching system for every Cincinnati Police Department vehicle."