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Two Midtown restaurants and a convicted drunken driver have settled a lawsuit filed by the relatives of a Tucson man killed in an alcohol- related collision.

Julie Lagergren's insurance company and the owners of Elle, a Wine Country Restaurant, and Cuvee World Bistro, have agreed to pay Evan Zarate's survivors $410,000, according to court documents,.

Lagergren, 36, had a blood- alcohol level of 0.231 percent, almost three times the legal limit, when she drove a Volvo station wagon head-on into the Kia in which Zarate was riding on South Country Club Road near East Broadway on Aug. 24, 2005, according to police and prosecutors.

Zarate, 22, never regained consciousness after the crash and died a week later in a hospital.

Monica Miranda, the driver of the Kia and the mother of two of Zarate's children, suffered a punctured lung and broken bones.

In the months following, a lawsuit was filed against Elle, Lagergren, Cuvee and Walgreens on behalf of Miranda; Zarate's parents, Judith Cook and Victor Zarate; and Andrea Stinnett, the mother of Zarate's youngest child, who was born four months after the crash.

Miranda is to receive $60,000 of the total settlement, court documents show.

The lawsuit alleged Lagergren was served alcohol when restaurant and Walgreens employees, where she also purchased alcohol, knew or should have known she was already under the influence.

The restaurants and Lagergren's insurance company settled in late December, and Walgreens was dismissed as a defendant last week.

Attorney Peter Collins, who represented Elle's owner, Jeff Fuld, said although there was a great deal of evidence showing Elle and Cuvee employees were not at fault for the crash, there's no telling what a jury will do. "You eliminate the risk (of losing) by settling it," Collins said.

The Elle bartender who served Lagergren was formally trained to identify people who show obvious signs of intoxication and saw no such signs in Lagergren, Collins said.

Kevin Sweeney, who represents Cuvee, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Prosecutors hoped to take the case against Lagergren to a jury trial, but because one of the investigating Tucson police officers was accused of sexual misconduct on duty, and subsequently resigned from the force, and another mishandled a search warrant and was unable to testify, they offered her a plea deal.

In December 2006, Pima County Superior Court Judge Nanette Warner sentenced Lagergren to three years in prison for negligent homicide, five years of probation for aggravated assault and five years' probation for misdemeanor driving under the influence.