Dozy subway track maintainer Frank Ryan, caught taking a two-hour nap on the job by The Post, “was on a break,” defiant family members claimed yesterday.

“They’re acting like he killed somebody. There are worse things to worry about in the world,” said an angry relative who answered the door at Ryan’s Long Island home yesterday afternoon.

“He was on a freakin’ break,” said the woman, who refused to give her name.

That excuse didn’t fly with some of Ryan’s own colleagues, who were disgusted to learn of his sleepy work habits.

“It’s bad,” said one maintainer, shaking his head as he left the Broadway-Lafayette crew quarters where Ryan clocks in for his night shifts. “It’s just really bad.”

He and fellow subway maintainer Robert Malandrino were spotted checking in for work Thursday and then driving their cars to a dark street, where they bedded down for more than two hours of paid shut-eye.