Son got a 'crash course'
MTA-exec dad's safety lies
A high-ranking subway official got his totally unqualified son a key job maintaining the signals that keep trains from crashing, The Post has learned.
Both assistant Signals Division chief Patrick Sohan and his 24-year-old son, who has the same name, have been sacked in the latest scandal to hit the troubled division, already under fire after it was discovered that inspectors were filing phony reports by signing off on equipment that was never checked.
Neither father nor son has been criminally charged, but one source said the Manhattan District Attorney's Office is looking into the matter.
The elder Sohan, 46, who lives in West Hempstead, LI, and oversaw signals for the entire subway system, is accused of helping his son fill out an employment application that cited phony credentials.
The dad earned $122,263 a year and had worked for the department for several years -- officials would not say how many.
The younger Sohan, also of West Hempstead, was hired as a signal maintainer last year -- working out of the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue signal office, which covers the D, F, Q and N lines.
He earned a $61,344 salary, along with $4,410 in overtime last year, according to transit records.
Signal maintainers are required to have extensive knowledge of electrical systems -- which they usually gain by taking advanced vocational-school courses or through years of outside experience.
The signals indicate when it's safe for a train to move, and whether or not a track switch is open.
But "he had no background in it whatsoever," said one source.
Transit officials were tipped off about the dangerous scheme earlier this year by other signal maintainers, who were outraged that the younger Sohan was getting preferential treatment, including more overtime and weekends off, the source said.
The elder Sohan was suspended two weeks ago and an investigation was immediately ordered.
The probers found he was instrumental "in filling [his son's] application out" and he was called back to turn in his official ID and any other department property he had.
He declined to comment about the allegations against him or his son when reached at home yesterday.
MTA spokesman Charles Seaton said the investigation is continuing, adding, "We are fully confident of the safety of the system and the current capability of our signal employees."
The signals department is already the target of a separate probe by the Manhattan DA, which is looking into allegations that inspectors routinely filed false reports that thousands of safety devices had been checked out.
MTA Inspector General Barry Kluger found out just last year that workers were filing the phony documents, despite the fact that two previous inspectors general blew the whistle on the practice beginning in 2000. 
hhaddon @nypost.com
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http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/s...#ixzz1TzeYd18K
I take the subway every day to and from work, and within the past 2-3 years, it has gone completely down hill from constant signal problems...well, now we know why.
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