On the eve of the three-year anniversary of Kyle Plush's death, the city of Cincinnati has agreed to pay $6 million to the teenager's family to settle a wrongful death lawsuit, the second-largest settlement in city history.
The suit was filed after police and 911 center workers failed to rescue the teen, who died after he became trapped under the seat of the minivan he drove to school.
Plush voice-called 911 on April 10, 2018 from the parking lot of Seven Hills School where he was trapped inside a Honda Odyssey. Help never arrived. His death prompted months of city hearings and allegations that the 911 center wasn't property staffed or trained, and in August 2019 the Plush family sued the city.
In the settlement, announced at 4 p.m. Friday, the city is also pledging to make more improvements to the 911 center, which begins with $250,000 to hire three outside experts to look at the city's 911 operations. Oversight will last five years, the settlement says and it also stipulates that improvements recommended by the experts must be made.
Another review of why help never reached Kyle will also be done.
"One goal will be to assess the actions or inactions ECC call takers and first responders that contributed to death of Kyle Plush and the adequacy of the subsequent measures taken by the city to address those issues," the settlement says, noting that, the 911 center workers and police officers may be re-interviewed.
