SUBWAY WORKER KILLED IN RED LINE ACCIDENT.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

A 52-year-old subway worker was killed early Saturday when a five-foot-wide bucket broke free of a chain and pinned him against a subway tunnel, resulting in the first fatality on the Red Line project.

Jaime Pasillas of Los Angeles was working the night shift in a subway tunnel some 70 feet under the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas Avenue when the accident occurred at 1:10 a.m., said Ed Scannell, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Pasillas was an employee of MTA contractor Tutor-Saliba.

MTA officials were at a loss to explain how the chain broke but said the bucket - although filled with construction debris - was not overloaded.

However, subway critics seized on the accident as further proof the troubled project is unsafe and mismanaged.

``Safety is out of control,'' said Bob D'Amato, an engineering consultant who has served as an unofficial watchdog on MTA worker safety issues for years. ``Project management is allowing things to run amok.''

Jerry Schneiderman, chairman of a group called Hollywood Damage Control and Recovery, said his group is constantly hearing about mishaps on the subway project. Hollywood Damage Control and Recovery has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against MTA on behalf of 1,600 local property owners, who claim their businesses have been negatively impacted by the construction.

``MTA doesn't care about safety,'' Schneiderman said.

Still, MTA Safety Director Dan Jackson said MTA has an above-average safety record compared to other massive public works projects nationwide.

``We compare favorably with projects of our size. This is our first fatality on the Red Line,'' Jackson said.

Jackson said the bucket that killed Pasillas was used to collect debris like scrap steel and lumber. The bucket was hung in the center of the 20-foot-high tunnel, suspended on both sides of the tunnel by chains. It is a handy tool for tunnel workers because the bucket can be moved along the tunnel as they collect debris, Jackson said.

``The chain broke, and it shifted the weight of the bucket,'' Jackson said.

Pasillas was with other workers when the accident happened, Jackson said, denying rumors that the worker was alone in the tunnel. The bucket was full of debris but not overloaded, Jackson said.

The accident is being investigated by MTA, Cal-OSHA, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, Scannell said.

So far, some six miles of subway are up and running on the Metro Red Line in downtown Los Angeles and along Wilshire Boulevard. But most of the line remains under construction, including the legs under Vermont Avenue, Hollywood Boulevard, the Hollywood Hills and North Hollywood.

The Hollywood Boulevard stretch where Pasillas was killed has had the most problems. In 1994, construction was halted by the Federal Transit Administration after the famed roadway sank by up to 10 inches in some places. In June 1995, MTA faced an even messier debacle when a 70-foot-deep sinkhole developed on the boulevard. Workers were ordered out of tunnel just moments before it was flooded with water and mud that was pushed into the tunnel by the force of the sinkhole.

While Pasillas' death marked the first fatality, other workers have been seriously injured since subway construction was started in the mid-1980s.

Dale Gibson was burned over 90 percent of his body when an acetylene tank exploded while he was working in a subway tunnel under Vermont Avenue in June 1994.

Just last week, Gibson and two other workers injured in the blast won a $12.3 million settlement from the MTA.

In April 1994, a construction worker's leg was cut off by a cement mixer in a tunnel under Hollywood Boulevard.

Cal-OSHA officials could not be reached for comment, but in the past, the agency has handed down fines for safety violations.

MTA contractor Shea-Kiewit received a $477,125 fine in the fall of 1994 after the acetylene tank explosion under Vermont Avenue. In the spring of 1994, MTA ordered the same contractor to stop work for two weeks after inspectors found more than 100 safety violations.

That inspection was started after three workers were injured in a mishap involving a runaway construction train with bad brakes. In the spring of 1995, a weeklong sweep of Red Line operations by federal and state inspectors resulted in thousands of dollars in fines to companies involved in tunnel work.