NEW YORK — In hindsight, jumping in front of an oncoming subway train may not have been the smartest move Wesley Autrey has ever made."It's all hitting me now," Autrey said yesterday, the day after he had saved the life of a young man who had fallen down onto the tracks by pushing him into a gap between the rails. "I'm looking, and these trains are coming in now. ... Wow, you did something pretty stupid."

But even knowing that he had a narrow escape from injury or potentially death, the 50-year-old Manhattanite does not regret his choice.

"I did something to save someone's life," Autrey said.

The father of three was being lauded yesterday for his quick thinking and even quicker reflexes. Waiting for a downtown train on Tuesday, he saw Cameron Hollopeter, a film student, suffering from some kind of medical episode. After stumbling down the platform, Hollopeter, of Littleton, Massachusetts, fell onto the tracks with a train on its way into the station.

Autrey, travelling with his two young daughters, knew he had to do something.

He jumped down to the tracks and rolled with the young man into the trough between the rails as a southbound number one train came into the station.

The trough, which is used for drainage, is typically about 12 inches deep but can be as shallow as eight inches or as deep as 24 inches.

The train's operator saw someone on the tracks and put the emergency brakes on. Before the train came to a stop, two cars passed over the men — with about two inches to spare, Autrey said.

Neither man was hit, police said. Authorities said the rescued man was in stable condition later Tuesday at a local hospital.

Autrey, 50, declined medical attention. Onlookers cheered him, hugged him and called him a hero.