Newsday from New York, New York • 7

Safety rules to ground many popular parade characters By Robert Polner STAFF WRITER just too tall counting top-hat and all So the team is giving the boot to the Cat in the Hat in his fine-looking suit But whoa are they being anti-cute? No the people say a question of safety all the way The matter is the Thanksgiving Day Parade Citing a mayoral task force report released Friday in the wake of last year's accident that seriously injured a spectator the Giuliani administration said the famous parade no longer would allow balloons more than 70 feet tall 40 feet wide or 78 feet long Even the famed Woody Woodpecker no longer fits the bill All the balloons on the route will be tethered by two utility vehicles That will supplement the handlers who now steady the balloons as they proceed from Central Park West down Broadway and Sixth Avenue to Herald Square store The parade will be allowed to proceed only if the wind stays below 23 mph and wind gusts top 34 mph Last year the wind speed reached 40 mph and before that such speed was believed to have been reached on Thanksgiving 1985 The mayoral panel began its five-month review of parade safety after a runaway balloon Cat in the Hat knocked over a lamppost overhanging the street seriously injuring the spectator balloons that are just too big are not going to be allowed in the said Dennison Young Jr legal counsel to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani In addition to Dr cat and Woobr Woodpecker the task restrictions bar the Pink Panther Bugs Bunny and Rex the Dragon will have to be cleared in advance by the city Department of Transportation before they can join future parades Though both exceed the height and length limits only due to their ears or tails which officials say probably as risky The city will also modify lightpoles traffic signals and other furniture" for the day of the parade probably at Macy's expense The famed department store the host of the holiday parade since 1924 issued a statement Friday underscoring the fact that it had cooperated with the review and agreed with the recommendations also noted that of the 30 balloons in last lineup the vast majority already meet the new regulations spokeswoman Ronnie Taffet said the new rules would have little impact on the spectacle since Pink Panther Woody Woodpecker and Cat in the Hat already were scheduled to be sidelined in the next parade The Pink Panther was damaged in the last parade and Woody Woodpecker (along with Bart Simpson) nave their Taffet said also planned to pull The Cat in the Hat because of last accident In that mishap Manhattan resident Kathleen Caron na then 34 was critically injured when the Cat in the Hat careened out of control and hit the lamppost A 100-pound arm was knocked off the pole and tumbled onto the crowd at 72nd Street and Central Park West hitting Caronna on the head Three other spectators suffered less serious usuries After undergoing brain surgery and remaining in guarded condition for several weeks she reportedly made a recovery For now is looking forward to a fun safe parade will be promised Taffet show will go ScwMiiqr Pnoio Mxrjrta Aea The Cal in tha Hat balloon struggle! to stay put in high winds at last year's parade Ex-Colleague Calls Killer Hero pened in 1996 1 tell Cinquemani was a-ked what he would have liked to have told the jury about Harris Cinquemani appeared on the verge of tears as he answered he would have liked to have shown them photographs of his family who were able to enjoy his company thanks to bravery would ask them to look at me he gave me Cinquemani said he did he may have been under the influence of drugs I'm hoping the jury spares his life He deserves that much I can't thank him enough: he was a man who was always there for me as a rookie officer back in 196 1 just feel for him Afterward defense lawyers called C'armeta Alba rus a forensic social worker who did a psychological assessment of Harris' family testified that Harris' mother was obsessive compulsive and had an overly strict strict code of behavior But Detria Davis mother of one of his victims Evelyn Davis 32 emerged from court denouncing the testimony about Harris' mother's expectations for her children wanted a first-class son and she raised a first-class murderer She raised him right but not her fault what happened to By Patricia Hurtado STAFF WRITER Trying to save a former colleague from the death penalty a city correction officer yesterday described how convicted murderer Darrel Harris saved his life during a calamitous jailhouse riot Corrections Officer Darrel Harris laid his body down over me as a shield protecting me and saving my said Officer Thomas Cinquemani describing an Aug 8 1986 riot at the jail in Fort Greene section Harris' lawyers Russell Neufeld and Colleen Brady called Cinquemani and two other Correction Department colleagues as character witnesses for Harris 40 the first person to be convicted under the 1995 death penalty law Cinquemani who is now assigned to the Staten Island courts said he was knocked unconscious in the melee of about 120 prisoners when Harris rescued him from further blows were trying to get at each other and we were stuck in the middle defending he said Harris later won the Medal of Honor for his heroism A Brooklyn state Supreme' Court 1 Cohvidtd 1 City correction officer: He once saved my life him last week of first-degree murder for a Dec 7 1996 triple homicide inside a Bedford-Stuyvesant social club The defense is now presenting testimony in the penalty phase of the case to convince the panel to spare life Outside of court Cinquemani who was a somber but sincere witness became more emotional under questioning from reporters He said that it was the first time he had seen Harris since the 1987 awards ceremony at City Hall and that the defendant had winked at him twice yesterday think he was thanking me for being Cinquemani said Asked if he could ever imagine his former colleague would meet such a fate Cinquemani said He said his heart went out to Harris feel for Cinquemani said was a good man and to me he will always will be He was a man full of 'respect dignity and pride in 1986 Whatever Nl WSI1AV Si INI AY MAV 31 1'WH.