TEXAS FIRESTONE SETTLEMENT

A verbal agreement has been reached between Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. and the relatives of a Texas couple who died after a tire blew out on their sport-utility vehicle. Details of the settlement were not disclosed, but it stems from the first product liability lawsuit scheduled for trial since the company’s August tire recall.

Ryan Anthony Guillen, 21, and his sister, Kimberly Guillen, 18, sued the tire manufacturer last November after their mother and stepfather were killed when their Ford Explorer crashed May 30, 1999. Police said the siblings’ parents, Nidia and Patricio Leal, died when a Firestone tire unraveled, sending the vehicle skidding into a ditch.