MTA says false reports have not endangered riders

In the wake of reports that thousands of inspection reports for signal lights in the city's subway tunnels had been falsified, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Saturday said the signals have been reinspected and riders are not at risk.

The falsification problem was uncovered in MTA audits and also was discovered by MTA Inspector General Barry Kluger, who reported it to the agency before his own investigation was finished, officials said.

The New York City Transit subway system's 10,000 signals are designed to keep a safe distance between trains and prevent accidents. Despite the phony reports of maintenance inspections, the agency said, the system has a fail-safe mechanism that automatically triggers brakes or stop signals.

"We have changed the leadership of the signals division," said a statement released by MTA spokeswoman Judie Glave. "We also took swift action to ensure that none of these deficiencies undermined the signal system's safe operation or its underlying components."It is important to note that the result of that effort has reinforced that the signal system is safe."The problem of falsified reports apparently went back two years, the agency said. Sources confirmed that the leadership change referred to the transfer of the former head of the Signals Division, Tracy Bowdwin. The division employs about 1,000 inspectors and more than 100 supervisors.

The Signals Division is a unit of NYC Transit. None of the problems related to the Long Island Rail Road, officials said.