HILO, Hawai'i — Lawyers for the county and the family of a woman who was killed during a Big Island police-car chase in 2000 have reached a settlement in which the county will pay the woman's family $1.6 million, less than what a jury awarded.

In March, a Hilo Circuit Court jury awarded $5.6 million in damages to the family and estate of 31-year-old Ellison Sweezey, who was killed when the car she was riding in was struck at a Hilo intersection by a stolen car driven by Richard Rosario.

Rosario was being chased by police when he crashed at Maka'ala Street and Kanoelehua Avenue on Sept. 7, 2000.

The jury found Big Island police and the county were 34 percent responsible for the collision, which meant the county was obliged to pay $1.9 million of the judgment. Rosario was deemed responsible for the rest of the damages.

Under the settlement approved in Circuit Court last week, the county will be required to pay reduced damages of $1.6 million over three years. As part of the deal, the county agreed it would not appeal the jury verdict, said Deputy Corporation Counsel Harry Freitas.

In exchange, Robert Marx, who represented Sweezey's parents, her five children and her estate during the trial, agreed to drop a claim for costs and back interest payments on the judgment.

If Marx had been successful in claiming those costs, it would have increased the total cost to the county to about $2.5 million, Freitas said.

Freitas said he still doesn't agree with the original jury verdict, but said the settlement "was a fair result all the way around.

"I think it was something that was best for all the parties involved."

Marx said the jury award was the largest personal-injury judgment in a wrongful-death case in at least the past decade, and said an appeal by the county would have put that award at risk.

The settlement amount "was enough to assure the children will have sufficient funds to take care of them and to educate them," he said.

Rosario, 24, had fled from police in Puna, and officers chased him for more than 12 miles before the stolen Nissan Sentra he was driving broadsided the Honda Accord Sweezey was riding in near Prince Kuhio Plaza.

Lawyers for the family argued police violated their own procedures for high-speed chases.

Rosario is serving a 20-year prison term for manslaughter for his role in the crash, and lawyers involved in the case doubt the family will ever be able to collect on the judgment against him.