UC Berkeley settles in football practice death for $4.75 million

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The University of California, Berkeley has settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of a football player who died in 2014 during a conditioning workout for $4.75 million, both sides said on Thursday.

The settlement with the family of 21-year-old Ted Agu was reached on April 8 and requires the school to adopt safety changes to protect student athletes, UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said.

"The University is glad to have reached a resolution with the Agu family, as it has been a difficult process for everyone involved," Mogulof said.

Agu, whose status as a carrier of the sickle cell trait blood abnormality was known, died on February 7, 2014 near California Memorial Stadium on the Berkeley campus after an exhausting conditioning drill.

So called "sickle cell crises" can occur during intense exercise, and those who have the trait can be especially vulnerable to dehydration and low oxygen, according to medical experts.

The family called the drill "extremely intense and egregiously inappropriate, given his medical condition," according to court records. They said that Agu showed serious signs of fatigue that were ignored by Berkeley trainers and coaches.

Steve Yerrid, an attorney for Agu's family, said in a statement: "We are pleased that Cal has accepted responsibility, monetarily acknowledged the enormity of the loss suffered, and taken critically important reforms aimed at preventing these tragedies from occurring to others."

The school said that since Agu's death, it has improved training for coaches and conditioning staff, implemented new medical screening practices, and required more oversight of their workout plans.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Sara Catania and Andrew Hay)