Tire Co. Settles Suit for $17.7M

09:19 PM ET 09/22/99

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) - A tire manufacturing company will pay $17.7 million to a boy who survived a van crash that killed his parents. Pirelli Armstrong Tire Corp. will pay the money to Matthew Jensen, who was 4 when his parents died in a 1993 accident that happened after a tire on their van fell apart.

Ginny Jensen, 47, was a copy editor at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and her husband, 45-year-old Al Jensen, had once worked as a copy editor there as well. Matthew was not seriously injured in the crash that followed a day at Walt Disney World one week before Christmas. Pirelli made the spare tire that Jensen installed on the van three days before the accident. The tread on the tire separated, and Jensen lost control of the van, which flipped over and was rammed by another car.

Pirelli agreed in July to settle the lawsuit filed by Mrs. Jensen's sister. A federal judge signed the settlement order last week.

A federal jury in Tampa awarded $5.4 million to Matthew in 1995 in another lawsuit filed by the estate of his father. Matthew, now 10, was adopted by his father's niece and her husband. He lives with them in New York.

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