The family of Kyle Plush has reached a $6 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Cincinnati.The settlement was announced on the eve of the third anniversary of Plush's death. The city of Cincinnati and the Plush family "have agreed to resolve a lawsuit filed by the family seeking damages and meaningful improvement of the City Emergency Communication Center.""Kyle was a very positive person, and he would have wanted to make change," said Jill Plush, Kyle's mother."I think there's going to be a lot of good things happening, and we're going to be with them along the way for the next five years," said Ron Plush, Kyle's father.The 16-year-old Seven Hills student died on April 10, 2018, when he was trapped by a folding seat in the back of a minivan parked in a lot across from his school.The boy was headed to the tennis court but never arrived. Instead, he was pinned by a folding seat in the back of his parked minivan. Plush managed to use the voice activation on his phone to call 911. However, operators and police were unable to locate his van.The teenager was found six hours later by his father. He was unresponsive in the van and pronounced dead a short time later.The settlement reads that the city "has taken substantial remedial action to address the problems that contributed to first responders failing to locate and rescue Kyle Plush, but acknowledges the need for continuous improvement with public transparency and accountability."The settlement establishes a team of 911 experts from around the country who will work with the director of the ECC to further enhance the city's 911 system. "The scope of the work that these experts will engage in includes fully, thoroughly exploring all the actions that everyone took that failed Kyle, identifying the systemic issues: the training, the quality assurance, the protocol issues and making sure that every one of them gets fixed," Gerhardstein said. "Reports every six months. They will be public. The public will be able to talk directly to the expert team. And they'll be a public hearing at various points whenever any of us want one, in order to bring everybody up to date with what's been done."In the lawsuit, the Plush family argues that the city acted recklessly and didn't make the boy's 911 calls a high priority."Most important is that she (the operator) didn't even contact the officers on the scene who were there when Kyle was still alive," Plush family attorney Al Gerhardstein said last year.City officials argued that Plush was a victim of a horrible circumstance and not recklessness. The Plush family sued the city of Cincinnati, former city manager Harry Black, two 911 call takers and both Cincinnati police officers who responded and failed to find the teen's van.On Friday, Cincinnati City Manager Paula Boggs Muething said the employees of the ECC and the police department are working to ensure the city "never again experiences a tragedy like the one suffered by the Plush family. The City is dedicated to providing the most professional emergency response to all Cincinnatians."City officials said they've made numerous changes and improvements to the ECC over the past three years, including changing leadership at the ECC, embracing data-based approaches, ensuring higher retention rates of ECC employees, providing call response times that exceed national standards, upgrading mapping software in police vehicles with 911 caller locations and amending procedures to emergency calls classified as "unknown trouble."The Plush family's attorney, Al Gerhardstein, had this to say following the settlement: "The family enters this agreement in honor of their son Kyle. To honor his memory, it was important that we secure a civic commitment to continuous improvement. With this agreement the City Manager commits to continue reforms in an enforceable, transparent way that will make the City safer for everyone. The family sees improvement under the current leadership and this court-supervised agreement will build on that.”"I really think that he's looking down on us and he's super proud of Al and his team for the work that they have done," Jill Plush said.
The family of Kyle Plush has reached a $6 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Cincinnati.
The settlement was announced on the eve of the third anniversary of Plush's death. The city of Cincinnati and the Plush family "have agreed to resolve a lawsuit filed by the family seeking damages and meaningful improvement of the City Emergency Communication Center."
"Kyle was a very positive person, and he would have wanted to make change," said Jill Plush, Kyle's mother.
"I think there's going to be a lot of good things happening, and we're going to be with them along the way for the next five years," said Ron Plush, Kyle's father.
The 16-year-old Seven Hills student died on April 10, 2018, when he was trapped by a folding seat in the back of a minivan parked in a lot across from his school.
The boy was headed to the tennis court but never arrived. Instead, he was pinned by a folding seat in the back of his parked minivan.
Plush managed to use the voice activation on his phone to call 911. However, operators and police were unable to locate his van.
The teenager was found six hours later by his father. He was unresponsive in the van and pronounced dead a short time later.
The settlement reads that the city "has taken substantial remedial action to address the problems that contributed to first responders failing to locate and rescue Kyle Plush, but acknowledges the need for continuous improvement with public transparency and accountability."
The settlement establishes a team of 911 experts from around the country who will work with the director of the ECC to further enhance the city's 911 system.
"The scope of the work that these experts will engage in includes fully, thoroughly exploring all the actions that everyone took that failed Kyle, identifying the systemic issues: the training, the quality assurance, the protocol issues and making sure that every one of them gets fixed," Gerhardstein said. "Reports every six months. They will be public. The public will be able to talk directly to the expert team. And they'll be a public hearing at various points whenever any of us want one, in order to bring everybody up to date with what's been done."
In the lawsuit, the Plush family argues that the city acted recklessly and didn't make the boy's 911 calls a high priority.
"Most important is that she (the operator) didn't even contact the officers on the scene who were there when Kyle was still alive," Plush family attorney Al Gerhardstein said last year.
City officials argued that Plush was a victim of a horrible circumstance and not recklessness.
The Plush family sued the city of Cincinnati, former city manager Harry Black, two 911 call takers and both Cincinnati police officers who responded and failed to find the teen's van.
On Friday, Cincinnati City Manager Paula Boggs Muething said the employees of the ECC and the police department are working to ensure the city "never again experiences a tragedy like the one suffered by the Plush family. The City is dedicated to providing the most professional emergency response to all Cincinnatians."
City officials said they've made numerous changes and improvements to the ECC over the past three years, including changing leadership at the ECC, embracing data-based approaches, ensuring higher retention rates of ECC employees, providing call response times that exceed national standards, upgrading mapping software in police vehicles with 911 caller locations and amending procedures to emergency calls classified as "unknown trouble."
The Plush family's attorney, Al Gerhardstein, had this to say following the settlement: "The family enters this agreement in honor of their son Kyle. To honor his memory, it was important that we secure a civic commitment to continuous improvement. With this agreement the City Manager commits to continue reforms in an enforceable, transparent way that will make the City safer for everyone. The family sees improvement under the current leadership and this court-supervised agreement will build on that.”
"I really think that he's looking down on us and he's super proud of Al and his team for the work that they have done," Jill Plush said.
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