posted July 18, 2006 10:17 PM         

BY MAUREEN SEABERG and CARRIE MELAGO
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

A 9-year-old Staten Island girl chasing her beloved puppy was struck by a car's side-view mirror and critically injured yesterday morning, police said.
Tiffany Gunaratne darted after her poodle, Sam, because a dog she had before was run over and killed several years ago, the girl's shaken father told the Daily News.

"She's a good student, a gentle girl," Ajantha Gunaratne, 46, said while keeping vigil at his daughter's bedside at St. Vincent's Hospital Staten Island. "She loves animals."

Tiffany remained in critical condition last night and was placed in a medically induced coma after the accident.

The little girl's family was just waking up around 8 a.m. yesterday after spending Sunday at the Jersey Shore, her dad said.

Tiffany, the third of four children, had been dozing in her mother's bedroom when Sam bounded in and woke her up.

She ran out of the house with the dog, a stray the family took in about three months ago, but the pooch broke free of its collar.

Perhaps recalling the tragic death of her last dog, Kelly, who was hit by a car about three years ago, Tiffany darted after Sam and straight into traffic on Brentwood Ave. in New Brighton, her family said.

Special education teacher Randi Termo swerved her Nissan to miss the animal, sources said, but her side-view mirror struck the little girl.

Police said no criminality is suspected in the accident.

Tiffany's eldest sister Sandy, 16, said the family hopes she'll return to Public School 45 in the fall.

"She loves drawing. She's a straight-A student and she loves animals," Sandy said.

With Alison Gendar