New York ? The investigation into the Staten Island ferry wreck that killed 10 passengers focused Thursday on whether the ship’s pilot blacked out and slumped over the throttle before the vessel crashed into a concrete pier.

City Councilman Michael McMahon, after a briefing from city emergency and transportation officials, said the crash may have been related to the pilot’s health and medication he was taking for a possible blood-pressure problem.

The pilot, Assistant Captain Richard Smith, attempted suicide after the crash by slitting his wrists and shooting himself with a pellet gun, police said.

“The assistant captain at the controls collapsed,” McMahon said. “By the time the other captain could get control of the ship, it was too late.”

The 310-foot ferry slammed into a concrete pier as it approached the Staten Island shore in choppy, wind-swept waters Wednesday afternoon, ripping a giant hole along its right side and severing the limbs of three passengers. Some passengers leaped into the water.

The crash left more than 60 people hospitalized, eight in critical condition. The dead, one woman and nine men, ranged in age from 25 to 52.

There was one bit of good news: A missing woman, presumed to have died in the water, turned up safe at a friend’s house, police said.

The fractured ferry sat at the docks Thursday as thousands of commuters boarded boats for the morning rush hour.

“If you look at any photograph of a terrorist attack on a bus or train in the Middle East, that’s your idea of what it looks like,” Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro said.

Witnesses said the vessel appeared to speed up as it approached the shore.