Daily News from New York, New York • 567

MM rani) is mmgrsm Online TV show bows t. miriSBii rr OEBRA DlPESO SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS keep an eye on passageway at Union Square subway station and at the curved track at platform for 4, 5, and 6 line tracks (opposite page). FaDjMlly side two crime-solver data bases and play detective themselves. The first contains characters' biographies everything from birth certificates to banking records. The other holds crime case evidence reports, including blood and DNA analyses and ballistics tests.

After sifting through the evi-dence, viewers can share opinions in a "Whodunit" chat room. But according to some media analysts, such interactivity actually may hurt so-called Internet TV in its bid for prime-time attention. "There are times when you just want to veg out," said Les Reiss, vice president of Paul Schulman a media planning service. "This is not going to overtake TV, and it's not going to wipe it out." Nor is it likely to steal advertisers right away. So far, "Whodunit" has cost between $50,000 and $60,000 (plus the lost salaries of its producers, who quit their jobs for the venture).

But as of last week, no advertisers had signed contracts. If and when sponsors do come on board, D'Angelo predicts earning between $5,000 and $30,000 per commercial per month. Sponsors' logos will appear at the top or bottom of the screen. Viewers will be able to click on the logo to learn more about the product or not click on at all. "At this point, the Internet really has to prove itself as able to expose the ad message to the right people," explained Reiss.

"It's not a major threat but it's not something you can ignore." In the meantime, D'Angelo remains confident. "I really don't believe we're going to take TV viewers away," he said. "But in the not-too-distant future, state-of-the-art technology will mirror television, and then there really will be a race to see who gets the viewer." By ANNE E. KORNBLUT Daily News Staff Writer You come home after a hard day, ready to relax with your favorite crime show. You sit down.

You open a beer. You turn on the computer? That's what the prod ucers of "Whodunit" are hoping. The new mystery series, debuting on the Internet tomorrow night, is being touted as the "first online television show," complete with real actors, real sounds and realistic scenarios in every episode. Plus, there are no commercial interruptions. And you can tune in, with the click of a mouse, anytime.

"It's like Raymond Chandler meets cyberspace," said Joe Hamill, co-creator of The NETwork (http:www.then-etwork.net), the Web site where the show will air. "There is nothing like this on the Internet yet," echoed his partner, William D'Angelo. "There is no story-telling online so far." There are, however, 24 million people over age 15 online in the U.S. and Canada, according to a recent Nielsen Media Research study. That, combined with the show's hot prime-time ingredients a murdered millionaire, two detectives and a hip, '90s-style cyber hacker could spell pay dirt for the producers.

But don't throw out your television just yet. "This is not quite as flexible as broadcast television," admitted Hamill, explaining that because of slow transmission speed, the show is not in full video. Instead, "Whodunit" consists of text files, still photographs, sound bites and some video clips. Each half-hour episode is broken down into pages and takes about five minutes to download with a 14.4 baud-rate modem. There are other differences from television.

In addition to watching an episode, viewers can peek in i Tf By JOANNE WASSERMAN Daily News Staff Writer It is almost four years to the day since his son was dragged in a stroller by a subway train, and Francisco Martinez weeps each time he tells the story. "This is going to be very bad for me all my life," said Martinez as he recounted the night of Nov. 9, 1991, when he and his family stood on the elevated sub CLARENCE DAVIS DAILY NEWS DISTRAUGHT DAD Francisco Martinez views stroller in which his baby son was dragged nearly to death four years ago. lengths as TA regulations require. The TA refused comment, saying the case was pending.

The conductor, Jean Alexandre, was dismissed at two separate disciplinary hearings, but got his job back from an arbitrator in June 1992. Martinez said his family had just "come back to New York on the Long Island Rail Road and went to take the train at Broadway Junction." When the train arrived, "I went to put the stroller in the train and the train doors closed immediately," he said, beginning to weep. "I tried to pull it out It was impossible. I was pulling and screaming, 'Stop the As the subway pulled out of the station, the stroller hit the railing at the end of the platform, and Francisco fell to the tracks below. The child suffered a series of internal injuries and a fractured skull and was not expected to survive.

He was hospitalized for six months. Francisco's vocal cords are paralyzed on one side and he too, has terrible nightmares. "He says he sees lights and a train," said his father. "He cries. He screams." way platform at the Broadway Junction station in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Martinez; his wife, Rosa; Francisco, now 5, and his sister, Adelyn, now 8, recently went to the office of their lawyer, Sue Kar-ten, to tell their story. That story continues in the courts even as the Transit Authority struggles to install safety devices recommended eight years ago by a task force formed after a dragging incident cost a woman her life. The Martinez family is suing the TA for $60 million a legal battle that Karten said the TA has stonewalled. "It's been three years of fighting for documents," said Karten, who claims the TA knew from its own task force that the subway system lacked mechanisms to prevent young Francisco's tragedy. The Martinez suit also claims the subway door that dragged young Francisco's stroller did not have sensors to detect the caught stroller, and that mirrors to help conductors see the platform were not properly aligned.

Karten said the conductor was at fault for failing to observe the platform for three car before 1997 because they are in the last of three groups to get the devices. In their program, transit officials acknowledged they grouped their 88 priority stations by subway lines rather than by accidents. "The numbered lines are all in the third group" to get the TV cameras, Garden said. Those include dangerous No. 4, 5, 6 and 7 line platforms at Grand Central, the 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines at Nevins'St in Brooklyn and the 4.

5 and 6 line station at the Brooklyn Bridge. In its safety program, the TA also is installing highly sensitive door sensors to detect items as small and narrow as a credit card blocking doors. The sensors alert the conductor when all is clear to move the train. So far, the new sensors have been installed in one third of the subway fleet. The No.

7 line station at Grand Central, with 10 drag-gings, was found to be the most dangerous. But it is not due to get cameras until July 1997. The and platforms at the W. Fourth St. station have been the scene of eight draggings in the last three years, the second-highest in the system but is not slated to get cameras at all.

The four stations of the top 10 that are slated to get the TV cameras will not have them cr mA n.r ii.i iiw i hi ii ii i I WHAT'S "Whodunit" stars '(. to Clnarnon Romers, April Dion and J.D. Robbins. I in.