Kansas City, Mo. ? City officials have agreed to pay $300,000 to the parents of a college student who was killed when the vehicle he was in slid on a patch of ice that formed after a water main broke.

The payment, which the City Council approved Thursday, will settle the lawsuit filed by the parents of Sam Woodell.

He was killed in December 2004 while he was home for Christmas vacation after his first semester at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Both Woodell and the driver were thrown from the vehicle when it flipped after sliding on the patch of ice. The driver was critically injured.

Tim Dollar, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said neighbors had reported the water main break earlier in the day and warned that the water flowing over the road was creating dangerous icy conditions. But the problem was not immediately fixed.

According to a city document, the driver tested positive for alcohol and was thought to be speeding.

Though the driver’s insurance company agreed to a sizable monetary settlement, Dollar said the city also was partly responsible.

“We hope one legacy of this unfortunate tragedy is it will serve as notice to the city to be more vigilant,” Dollar said.

City Atty. Galen Beaufort declined to comment on the settlement.

The settlement was the second of its kind in recent months. The council agreed in August to pay $224,000 to a woman who was seriously injured after slipping on a patch of ice from a water pipe that had been leaking for years.

In 2001, a consultant found the water department had more main breaks and leaks per year than several comparable cities. The problems are expected to lessen after voters last summer approved $500 million in new bonds for upgrading the city’s water and sewer systems.