NATION : Crane Hits N.Y. Train; Operator Hurt

Part of a crane perched on a subway work car smashed into a passenger train on an elevated track in Brooklyn today, then swung back violently, severely injuring the transit worker in the crane’s cab.

The crane’s counterweight punched a 4-by-1-foot hole into the side of the first car of a Manhattan-bound N train at 10:06 a.m., Transit Authority spokeswoman Caren Gardner said.

Transit worker Frank Davila, 54, who was sitting in the crane’s cab, was injured as the counterweight swung wildly back and forth. He was taken to Kings County Hospital and was listed in critical but guarded condition

Although the crane’s counterweight struck the train just opposite from where the passenger train’s operator was sitting, no one else, including the 200 passengers aboard the train, was hurt, Gardner said.