CITYWIDE

ELDERLY MAN KILLED BY TRAIN, WOMAN INJURED ON SUBWAY

One woman was injured and an elderly man killed by subway trains yesterday morning in separate incidents that were just eight minutes apart, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Charles Seaton, said. An 82-year-old man was struck and killed on the track bed by a train on the R line at 77th Street and Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn at 8:58 a.m. yesterday. Police do not suspect foul play.

The other incident occurred eight minutes later, at the 125th Street and Lenox Avenue station along the nos. 2 and 3 lines when a woman waiting for the train fell and got her leg pinned between the car and the platform.

The service disruption lasted 18 minutes as emergency workers pushed the train away from the platform to free the woman’s leg.

Yesterday’s fatality was the 23rd of the year, according to police figures. In 2004, 41 people died under subway cars.

In a separate incident late Wednesday night, a conductor aboard a Brooklyn bound Q train was hospitalized at Lutheran Medical Center after suffering a head injury that was bleeding profusely. Reports said a crew member on a B train passing on the express track at the Avenue U station noticed through the window that the conductor was slumped over in his cab.

– Special to the Sun

SPITZER: COMPANIES CHEATED ON WORKERS’ WAGES FOR CITY PROJECTS

After an investigation by the attorney general’s office revealed that two major contractors hired for city projects paid employees less than the prevailing wage, 147 construction workers will be compensated $4.2 million total in restitution checks.

Corinthian Construction Company, DS Plumbing & Heating Corporation/Zaffuto Construction Company, and nine other entities involved in the case will also be barred from public works projects for five years.

At a press conference yesterday, the attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, said Corinthian and DS/Zaffuto deceived their employees during projects for the city’s School Construction Authority and the Housing Authority.

“They claimed to be paying $15, $20, $30 an hour,” he said. “In fact what they do is pay the workers much less and pocket the differential.” Investigators found that from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2003, Corinthian performed emergency services for the School Construction Authority and reported false payroll summaries for 38 employees. On June 16 of this year, the company and its president, Andres Alvarez, pleaded guilty to felony charges.

The company’s attorney, Allan Bahn, said the company is voluntarily paying back $1.9 million to the 38 employees, out of about 300 total, who received wages below the standard.

“It was a small fraction of their total workforce,” Mr. Bahn said. “Even before the attorney general’s office or the School Construction Authority got involved, Corinthian was beginning to address it itself.”

– Special to the Sun

BROOKLYN

CHALLENGERS TO D.A. HYNES ON SOLID FINANCIAL FOOTING

The Brooklyn district attorney, Charles Hynes, holds a slight lead in fund-raising over two of his chief rivals in the Democratic primary, according to figures that campaign officials released to The New York Sun yesterday.

The challengers, the former head of state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s corruption bureau, Mark Peters, and a state senator, John Sampson, both appear now to have the financial means to mount vigorous challenges to Mr. Hynes, a four-term incumbent. A Hynes campaign spokesman, Mortimer Metz, said yesterday that the district attorney has raised $772,876 to date. A Peters spokeswoman, Sara Forman, said that the former Spitzer deputy has raised $608,317.

At press time, a Sampson aide said that “we still have a lot of the number crunching to do,” but he said that the state senator expects to report a fund-raising total of about $600,000.

– Special to the Sun