The parents of late actor Anton Yelchin have reached a confidential settlement with Fiat Chrysler, the makers of Jeep automobiles, over the 2016 accident that killed their son.
Yelchin, 27, was pinned by his Jeep Grand Cherokee after it rolled down his inclined driveway and crushed him between a mailbox and a security gate in front of his home.
The agreement between Victor and Irina Yelchin and Fiat Chrysler was filed this week in Los Angeles Superior Court.
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Fiat Chrysler said in a statement Thursday that it is “pleased that we’ve reached an amicable resolution in this matter” and that the car company continues to “extend our deepest sympathies to the Yelchin family for their tragic loss.”
“Anton Yelchin was crushed and lingered alive for some time, trapped and suffocating until his death,” the original lawsuit, filed by the Yelchins, stated.
Gary Dordick, lawyer for the Yelchins, previously said of the accident, “It appears that Anton went back to his house to retrieve something. He left his vehicle and was on his way out at the time, believing his vehicle was in park.”
The car company alleged that Yelchin’s death was due to his “misuse, misapplication or damage of the product or modification, repair and/or maintenance of the product involved.”
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The Grand Cherokee model was among 1.1 million vehicles recalled about two months earlier, when regulators said its gear shifters were confusing drivers, causing the SUVs to roll away unexpectedly and leading to dozens of injuries.
The wrongful death and product liability lawsuit alleged that those gear selectors were the cause of the actor’s death.
“In spite of our unbelievable grief, we decided to come here to prevent other families from the same tragedy,” Victor Yelchin said when the lawsuit was filed.
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Yelchin began acting at a very early age, and was widely considered to be one of the best up-and-comers in Hollywood. Besides his star turn as Chekov in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies, Yelchin was feted for his work in other movies like Like Crazy and his last film, Thoroughbreds (out now).
He was mourned by his former castmates, friends and family in a celebration at Hollywood Forever ceremony last October.
Messages left for Dordick were not immediately returned, and Yelchin’s parents had no comment on the settlement.
— With files from The Associated Press
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