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Posted at 10:18 a.m., Friday, November 8, 2002

Ehime Maru families accept settlement for collision

Associated Press

TOKYO ­ The families of 33 teachers and students who were aboard a Japanese fishing trawler that was sunk by a U.S. submarine off Hawai'i have agreed to a multimillion dollar compensation payout from the U.S. Navy, news reports and a lawyer for the families said today.

Japan's Kyodo News agency, quoting unnamed sources, said the two sides had agreed to a total payment of 1.6 billion yen ($13 million).

Morio Hatakeyama, the chief lawyer for the families, declined to disclose the size of the payment but said a final agreement had been reached and it would be signed at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo next Thursday.

The deal covers 33 of the 35 families of those killed or injured, he said. Negotiations between the U.S. Navy and the two other families are continuing separately.

Nine men and teenage boys died when the nuclear-powered USS Greeneville surfaced beneath the trawler Ehime Maru on Feb. 9, 2001, sinking it off the coast of Oahu. The fishing vessel was on a training expedition for students and teachers from Uwajima Fisheries High School in Ehime prefecture (state) in southwestern Japan.

Under U.S. law, compensation must be completed within two years of an accident, giving the families until next February to decide whether to accept a settlement offer or file a civil lawsuit, Hatakeyama said.

Washington had earlier reportedly considered paying about $1.85 million each to the seven families of the dead crew, matching a U.S. compensation fund for the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Earlier this year, the Ehime government agreed to $11.47 million in compensation from the U.S. Navy to cover the costs of the vessel, equipment, cargo, crew salaries, mental health care for the survivors and the costs for a memorial service.

Scott Waddle, skipper of the USS Greeneville, was given a letter of reprimand for the fatal collision after a Navy court of inquiry. He retired last year.