No felony to bash MTA supe

A straphanger socked an MTA plumber in the face Wednesday — but his assailant won’t face the harsh punishment reserved for people who attack transit workers.

Because Oral Wiggins is a maintenance supervisor, a law that allows those who assault transit workers to be charged with a felony doesn’t apply to him, union officials said.

Wiggins and his five-man crew wrapped up a job and boarded a downtown A train when a Bronx man started punching him in the face at the 145th St./St. Nicholas Ave. station at 3:50 a.m., authorities said.

“It was like two sudden blows. I feel like my heart starting like ‘pump pump pump’ – beating fast,” Wiggins explained. The 13-year MTA veteran chased his attacker up the stairs, where police joined the pursuit and arrested 67-year-old Antonio Martinez.

Wiggins (inset) was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia and was released after seven hours.

The assault has shed light on what union officials say is a loophole in a law meant to protect transit workers against attack.

Mike Carrube, president of the Subway Surface Supervisors Association, says the legislation — which makes assaulting an MTA employee a Class D felony charge with a maximum penalty of seven years in prison — doesn’t cover supervisors.

“I don’t think a ... passenger on the train could determine which one’s a supervisor and who’s not a supervisor,” Carrube said. “It should have covered all transit workers.”

Carrube is pushing for state lawmakers to pass a bill that explicitly adds transit supervisors to the law.

Assemblyman Peter Abbate (DBrooklyn), the bill’s sponsor, said it was unclear whether transit supervisors were covered in the original law but says that can be changed to include them.

“This is an example of why it has to pass when we go back,” he said. “Most of them (supervisors) are out on the street in a subway station or a bus stop checking things.”

In a statement NYC Transit President Andy Byford said, “No transit worker, no matter what their title, should endure abuse on the job.”