CITYWIDE

City To Create 200 Miles of Bicycle Paths

To reduce the number of New Yorkers who are killed or seriously injured riding bikes, 200 miles of paths, lanes and routes designed especially for bikes will be created throughout the city, top officials from the city departments of health, transportation and police said yesterday. More than 3,400 people have suffered injuries and more than 200 have died from cycling injuries over the past decade in the city. At least 97 % of people who died were not wearing protective helmets, and the city officials hope the lanes — combined with a citywide campaign to promote bicycle rider’s “right to the road” — will help cut the number of people who die or are seriously injured.

— Special to the Sun

Port Authority Evacuated Due to Suspicious Object

Part of the Port Authority Bus Terminal was evacuated yesterday after a suspicious object was found. Port Authority spokesman Tony Ciavolella said the terminal’s north wing, located between 41st and 42nd streets and Eighth and Ninth avenues, was evacuated at 11 a.m. NJ Transit and various private carriers operate out of that wing. The bomb squad was responding, he said.

—Associated Press

No One Injured in LIRR Train Derailment

An empty Long Island Rail Road train heading into a storage yard derailed yesterday morning when one set of wheels on the lead car came off the track, a LIRR spokesman said. There were no injuries.The rear wheels on the head car of the eight-car train came off the tracks shortly before 9 a.m., as the train was heading into the West Side storage yards on West 33rd Street, said LIRR spokesman Sam Zambuto. The seven cars that remained on the track were detached from the head car and removed, and by early afternoon workers were trying to get the derailed car back on the line.The derailment had no affect on service, Mr. Zambuto said.

— Associated Press

STATEWIDE

Car Dives Into Second Floor of Building, Killing Driver

CORAM — A car hit a four-foot dirt hill at high speed and launched into the second story of an apartment building, killing the driver, Suffolk County police said yesterday. Investigators were trying to determine how the accident occurred. Crews were working to reinforce the building structure in order to remove the car, which had penetrated into the building up to its rear bumper, according to Officer William Fairchild, spokesman for the Suffolk County police. The apartment was empty at the time of the crash and no residents of the building appeared to be injured. The driver’s identity could not immediately be determined.

— Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

Men Struck and Killed After Running Onto Highway

Two Queens men were killed yesterday when they ran onto the entrance ramp of the Van Wyck Expressway in Jamaica and were struck by an oncoming car, police said. Police said the two men parked their 1997 black Lincoln town car beside the Liberty Avenue entrance ramp around 3:30 p.m., then ran into the roadway, where they were hit by a pickup truck.The driver of the pick-up, a 58-year-old man, stopped and called police, authorities said. Police identified the victims as Abdramane Kane, 25, who was driving the town car, and Aboubacar Davo, 34, his passenger. Police are investigating why they ran into the roadway.

—Special to the Sun

Former Police Officer Charged in 1996 Rape

A former police officer has been charged in a 10-year-old rape case after prosecutors linked him to the crime thanks to a “cold hit” on the city’s DNA database. The Queens District Attorney charged Ronald Murgo, 38, of Woodside after DNA evidence linked him to the 1996 crime, prosecutors said. For nearly a decade, police had been investigating the rape of a 21-year-old woman. Authorities linked Mr. Murgo, who was terminated from the police department in 1995, to the crime after he provided a DNA sample this past February in connection with an unrelated case. He was arrested yesterday in Queens, and charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse, and various counts of burglary, prosecutors said. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.

— Special to the Sun