"MY BEST FRIEND, EVERYONE LOVES HER, GET WELL SHAMI"!

Actress, 78, run down on mobility scooter

By JULIA DAHL and BILL SANDERSON

An elderly member of an influential New York theater family was critically injured near her Greenwich Village home yesterday when her mobility scooter collided with a Parks Department garbage truck.

Shami Chaikin, 78, was cruising in a bicycle lane on Eighth Avenue between West 12th and Bleecker Streets when the truck hit her about 9 a.m., authorities said.

She was rushed to St. Vincent's Hospital, where she underwent surgery yesterday afternoon. Hospital officials said she was in critical condition.

Shami has acted in numerous off-Broadway productions, including many directed by her late brother, Joseph Chaikin.

NY Post: Chad Rachman

GRIM AFTERMATH: A cop in the Village yesterday looks over the damaged scooter, which was being operated by stage and television performer Shami Chaikin.

Area residents and workers weren't surprised by the accident. They said cars and trucks often endanger cyclists and pedestrians by using the bike lane.

"I don't feel safe in the bike lane," said Jenny June, 44. "They [vehicles] have come up on me before."

"He had no business being there," neighbor Michael Embrey, 46, said of the Parks Department truck.

Police said the Parks Department driver would not be charged.

Shami appeared in the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live," the 1970 counterculture movie "Zabriskie Point," and off-Broadway shows directed by Joseph Chaikin, a noted actor and director.

Joseph Chaikin was a founder of the Open Theater in 1963. Shami appeared in what may have been its most famous production, "Viet Rock," an anti-war play.

After the Open Theater disbanded in 1973, Shami played Clytemnestra in her brother's 1974 production of "Electra." He also directed her in a 1998 production of "The Last Yankee," an Arthur Miller play.

Shami's neighbors in the Westbeth Artists Housing building on West Street said she suffers from arthritis and several times a week rides her mobility scooter to the YMCA on West 14th Street.

"She's my best friend," said Barton Benes, 66. "She's incredible. I'm on oxygen, and she comes every day to take my garbage out. She's there every time anyone needs help.

"We watch 'Judge Judy' together every day. That's our ritual. Everyone loves her."