SHORT TAKES : Ex-Ballerina Tells of Crash Pain

NEW YORK — Former ballerina Shenikwa Dawn Nowlin said she was overwhelmed with pain and often considered killing herself after she was paralyzed in a car crash involving former Yankee infielder Andre Robertson.

“I became almost irrational,” Nowlin, now a Dallas prosecutor, testified in state Supreme Court on Thursday. “I was afraid I was going to die. Then I was afraid someone was trying to kill me. . . . It was horrible.

“I thought many times about killing myself,” she said as she fought back tears.

Nowlin, 31, has filed a $20-million lawsuit against New York City, saying the car she was riding in Aug. 18, 1983, crashed on the Henry Hudson Parkway because a sign warning of a sharp curve was improperly placed. Robertson, who was driving the car, is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.