Family, Disney Settle Suit Over Ride Death

While the settlement's terms are confidential, Marcelo Torres' parents said they were giving $500,000 of it to Brooks College in Long Beach to provide scholarships to aspiring animators. Their 22-year-old son was a graphic artist.

"There is no money possible to pay for his life -- ever -- but that is the only remedy the law can provide," Jaime and Carmen Torres of Gardena said in a statement. "Now that this exhausting emotional process has finally concluded and we have our answers, we will hopefully have some closure."

The settlement was announced three days before jury selection was to begin in Orange County Superior Court.

In 2002, Disney similarly handled its last lawsuit over a ride accident: It was settled three days before trial, and the terms were never disclosed. In that case, a boy suffered irreversible brain damage on Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin in September 2000.

But unlike that case, Disney accepted responsibility for the Big Thunder Mountain accident that killed Torres and injured 10 others.

"We all deeply regret that the tragic accident occurred and are terribly saddened by the grievous pain this caused the Torres family," Disneyland spokesman Rob Doughty said Friday.

A report by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health that was released two months after the accident faulted park maintenance workers, ride operators and a mechanic.

Disney officials, though, have denied the Torreses' attorney's contention that the faulty maintenance was part of a larger safety problem brought on by budget cuts at the Anaheim amusement park.

"This was not just one mechanic making a mistake," said Wylie A. Aitken, who represented the Torres family. "This was really systemic to how they were running the park."

The crash occurred when two bolts on the locomotive's left guide wheel assembly fell off, causing an axle to jam into the railroad's ties. The locomotive nose-dived, and its rear hit the top of a tunnel. The force snapped a tow bar connecting the locomotive to the lead passenger car, which slammed into the locomotive's undercarriage.

Torres was sitting in the lead passenger car.