TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese truckmaker Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp. said Tuesday it has offered to settle out of court a 165 million yen (US$1.57 million) lawsuit brought by a woman whose daughter was killed by a wheel that flew off a Mitsubishi truck.

The offer followed an announcement last month by Japan's third-largest truckmaker that it was recalling 112,000 trucks and other heavy vehicles because of what it described as a design flaw that could cause their wheel hubs to crack.

Japanese police are investigating the hubs -- a part that connects the wheel to the axle -- in connection with dozens of accidents involving wheels becoming detached from Mitsubishi trucks.

A company spokesman said Tuesday it had offered to settle a lawsuit brought in March 2003 by Yoko Masuda, whose 29-year-old daughter was killed in an accident January 2002 in the Tokyo suburb of Yokohama. The woman was crushed to death and her two children were injured when they were hit on a sidewalk by a wheel that came off a passing Mitsubishi truck.

The spokesman, who declined to be named, said both sides' lawyers would meet soon to discuss the amount of the settlement and other details.

Masuda originally sued for 5.5 million yen (US$52,000) in damages, then raised the amount to 165 million yen (US$1.57 million) after several similar but not fatal wheel accidents were reported.

Mitsubishi Fuso is 43 percent owned by DaimlerChrysler AG of Germany.

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