DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION PEOPLE COMITTED SUICIDE BY JUMPING OUT OF BUILDINGS! NOWADAYS THEY JUMP IN FRONT OF TRAINS!

Eight people have been hit by subway trains over the last 13 days in a baffling spike of suicides, attempted suicides and accidents, the Daily News has learned.

There was as much carnage on the tracks between Feb. 13 and Wednesday as there typically is during an entire month, NYC Transit statistics reveal.

"It's the most I can recall, and I've been a train operator for 26 years," said Steve Downs, union chairman of the train operators division.

Kevin Harrington, another veteran motorman and union official, said train crews anecdotally noticed an increase in so-called "12-9s" - people struck by trains - starting late last year.

Police and transit officials wouldn't speculate on possible causes of the surge.

Subway trains struck eight people during all of February last year, nine in the prior February, and six in February 2007, according NYC Transit statistics.

In each of the last three years, there were between 89 and 98 people hit on the tracks.

Some train operators need therapy for years after hitting someone on the tracks, the union officials said, and some request transfers to other positions.

"When you have person jump in front of your train, it's traumatizing," Harrington said. "The prospect of having someone jump in front of your train itself is a daily stress operators have to face."

Some of the incidents since Feb. 13 appeared to have been intentional bids by the despondent to end their lives by jumping in front of trains from platforms, authorities said. In some instances, it's also possible that illness or drunkenness caused a fall to the tracks, authorities said.

Police do not suspect anyone was shoved off a platform, a spokesman said.

One young man was hit by a northbound No. 1 train at 5:40 a.m. after trying to retrieve something he dropped on the tracks at the 116th St. station. Amazingly, he survived with just a laceration to the head.

A 16-year-old boy lost a leg while walking on tracks between stations near the Kings Highway N stop. He told police he was planning to do graffiti when struck by a train.

Two others survived, including a petite woman who jumped in front of a train in Queens. She fell into a trough and wasn't hit.

Two people were killed immediately. Two others were taken to a nearby hospitals but not expected to survive.