Software glitch shuts down DMV

Cy Ryan and Heather Rawlyk

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 | 10:55 a.m.

A glitch in the computer system stopped the state Department of Motor Vehicles from conducting most transactions with the public for more than five hours Tuesday.

The 21 offices statewide that serve an average of 7,000 customers a day could not process vehicle registration or issue driver's licenses from about 10:30 a.m. until 3:25 p.m.

Coleman Carillo, 40, of northwest Las Vegas, thought it was his "lucky day" when he first walked into the DMV office on West Flamingo Road, where only nine customers stood in line.

Carillo's mood quickly changed when he heard the news.

"Man, I saw the line in there and thought it was an exceptionally slow day," he said. "I should have known it wouldn't be this slow.

"I need to get my license renewed, but I guess it can wait."

Tom Jacobs, public information officer for the department, said customers were "incredibly cooperative." He said there were no reports of anyone getting out of order.

Employees stayed on the job performing other tasks, he said. The department is one of the busiest state agencies in dealing daily with the public. Some of the customers waited until the computers came back up, Jacobs said.

Mark Blomstrom, deputy director of the state Information Technology Department, said it was a "software glitch in the data communications system." He said the new multimillion-dollar mainframe computer recently purchased from IBM was not to blame.

Blomstrom said DMV employees could not communicate with the state's mainframe computer, where all of its files are kept. The DMV was the only agency affected, he said.

"It put us out of business," Jacobs said.

Laura Campbell, 30, of northwest Las Vegas, made her way to the line inside the West Flamingo office, determined to "wait it out.

"I'm gonna stick here for a little bit longer because, boy would it be great if it opened back up and I was this close in the line," she said. "I've got time. I've got today off. I have to work the rest of the week, so this is my day to do this."

Jeff Woronka, 26, of Summerlin, said he was irritated by the outage.

"Well, this figures," he said, "I hate the DMV anyway, but I figured I'd come in and get this over with. I wanted to get it over with today, though."

Sheri McDonald, 42, of Las Vegas, was also frustrated. "This is ridiculous," she said. "It's just a pain in the neck. I've got a hundred other things I have to do today. I'll go do them and head back here later.

"Maybe by then the computers will be back on."

At 3:25 p.m., the number boards inside the building lit up their red numbers. The computers were back on.

"Yippee," said Campbell, jumping up and down. "See, I'm glad I waited. I'll be out of here in no time."

Blomstrom said about eight people on his staff and a "roomful" of IBM people worked to resolve the problem.

Jacobs said about 10 a.m. the system "hiccuped" and was then restored. But communications with the state's mainframe computer went down.

The agency, he said, was still able to conduct driver's test, give written driver's examinations and issue temporary moving permits. But all other functions were knocked out.

That included the website where motorists usually are able to renew their vehicle registration, as well as the computer kiosk in the DMV's offices at 4021 Carey Ave. in North Las Vegas.

Jacobs emphasized that DMV customers would not be penalized because of the computer problem. If a person tried to renew a driver's license or vehicle registration that expired Tuesday, that person will not be assessed a late fine, Jacobs said.