Daily News from New York, New York • 3

ftf flff 3WSt SUNDAY, MARCH 19 1978 r0 Irani Is Imurame wemst rT MM Ok E3k dozen insurance firms, chief among them being Lloyds of London. The $95 million pact was placed for the UDC by four brokerage houses, among them Kalvin-Miller Inc. Kalvin-Miller's general manager in New York is Michael Bennie, who was insurance administrator at the UDC until August 1975. Another one of the four was Alexander Alexander Services which several weeks ago became the sole broker for the tramway insurance. The UDC is banking on Vice President Peter Polstein to negotiate a better insurance deal for 1978.

The current coverage expires April 15. Better Insurance Deal in '78? Polstein would not disclose the size of the commission stands to make on the tramway deal, but industry sources estimate that the fee will be anywhere from 10 to 20 of th Continued on page 10, col. J) By STEVE GOLDSTEIN Every penny that goes into the fare box on the Roosevelt Island aerial tramway ends up in the hands of brokers to pay for insurance policies, an investigation by The News has disclosed. As a result, the 50-cents-a-ride tramway has become a spectacular boondoggle now dangling with a whopping $800,000 annual deficit. And the New York taxpayer is picking up the tab.

Cost Per Person: 95 Cents However, if it weren't for the tram-. way's extraordinary insurance policies if it were self-insured as are the city's subways the conveyance would be highly profitable, attracting tourists and Roosevelt Island residents alike. Last year, the state's Urban Develop-. ment which developed the island, paid $900,000 in insurance premiums. In the same year, the line carried 1.8 million riders, bringing in exactly the same amount, $900,000, in fares.

When labor and energy costs are Eiders aboard tram bound for RooseveU Island. added, the true cost of transporting one person the three fifths of a mile between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island is 95 cents, according to UDC Under the UDC's franchise agreement with the city, the tramway is required to carry $15 million in insurance. But the UDC has signed for $95 million in coverage with at least a i i A i jWkK By VINCENT LEE and PAUL MESKIL The city's Emergency Medical Service is trying to determine whether a "body-snatching" squabble between two ambulance crews caused a fatal delay in getting an accident victim to a hospital. The argument involved not only which ambulance should take him to what hospital, but which stretcher should be used to lift him into an ambulance. The victim, Carmelo Santiago, 24, of 487 E.

156th Bronx, was pronounced dead on arrival at North Bronx Central Hospital. Among other things, the medical service hopes to find out whether he died en route to the hospital or before he was placed in the ambulance. here have been charges in recent months of a continuing "war" between voluntary and municipal ambulance involving competition for accident victims as a means to fill costly hospital beds. As part of the contest for patients, drivers often take the victims to their own hospitals even though another hospital is closer. Santiago was driving north on the Major Deegan Expressway with his wife, Margarita, 20, and their 2-year-old daughter when his Volkswagen broke down near 176th St.

around 10:15 p. n. Friday. The car stalled in the middle of the roadway, and Santiago crawled underneath the vehicle to see whether he could restart the engine. Struck by Van A northbound van slammed into the Volkswagen, pinning Santiago beneath his car.

Firemen fighting a blaze a block away heard the crash and sent out a radio call for an ambulance. Within minutes, a private ambulance arrived at the accident scene. Mrs. Santiago, who suffered a broken back, and her daughter were placed in the ambulance. Police and firemen lifted the car, pulled Santiago out and turned him over to the two emergency medical technicians assigned to the ambulance.

The technicians had just str-apped Santiago onto a rolling stretcher when a city ambulance arrived. The technicians on the city ambulance reportedly told the private ambulance crew to turn Santiago over to them. The private ambulance workers refused. According to witnesses, the rival body snatchers" wasted about three minutes of precious time arguing News ohoto bv Alan Aaronson Following dispute, city ambulance attendants prepare to take Carmelo Santiago to hospital. State -Piys hb-MMtm'h fla.

By THOMAS POSTER conducted face-to-face interviews with nearly 1,000 unemployed New York residents. The investigators reported their findings to a State Advisory Council on Unemployment this week in a memo which was obtained by The News. The memo said that about 50 and possibly up t.o 75 of those interviewed may be lying to collect their jobless benefits. None of them, under federal laws protecting their privacy, could be identified. Ross will meet with the Advisory Council members, including Raymond Corbett, president of the State AFL-CIO, to discuss how to deal with the cheaters.

Fla. Labor Dept. Indifferent Ross has already asked Florida to improve its check on New Yorkers applying for unemployment benefits but so far has had little success. One of the team of investigators said Florida Labor Department officials showed little enthusiasm for suggestions that the New Yorkers be chased home. "They indicated that it doesn't cost Florida any money to pay unemployment benefits to the New Yorkers, so why bother," said the investigator.

The cheaters are collecting a total of about $400,000 weekly in benefits that come out of the State Unemployment Insurance Fund, which is maintained by a 'payroll tax on employers in New York State. Last year, that fund, went bankrupt and had to be bailed out by a federal, loan. More than 5,000 New Yorkers are living in sunny Florida and illegally collecting weekly unemployment benefit checks ranging from $75 to $115 a week, it was learned yesterday. The residents of New York State are ostensibly in Florida job-hunting because they could not find work here. The situation was discovered last fall in a spot check made of a cross-section of 12,000 persons collecting unemployment checks that are charged back to this state.

All are New York residents, according to the State Labor Department, and they will probably return here after collecting the maximum of 39 weeks of unemployment, or find temporary jobs in Florida. 1,000 Infer viewed One New York State investigator said some of the "unemployed" workers may have devised a scheme of using up the full unemployment benefit and then returning to New York to work for 20 weeks, making them "eligible" to go back to Florida and get on line again to collect benefits. The cheating New Yorkers were uncovered by a team of investigators sent south by State Industrial CommiS'J sioner Philip Ross. In their spot checks, the investigators -y- 'J (Continued on page 80 eol. I) 'i i mm if i.

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