Computer glitch forces drivers to wait for licenses

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 | 10:11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Another computer glitch, the second in two weeks, stopped the Department of Motor Vehicles from issuing new or renewed driver's licenses for more than four hours Monday.

Tom Jacobs, public information officer for the agency, said there was a malfunction between the state's central computer system and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

The association has programs that contain information on the demerits drivers amass in other states. It also has data on commercial drivers and their violation records and has Social Security information.

The agency was communicating via computer with the Central Data Processing Department in Nevada, Jacobs said. But the line from central data processing to the national program was off from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Customers waiting in line at 4 p.m. Monday at the Henderson DMV office, 1399 American Pacific Drive at Stephanie Street, said they were relieved things were back in order in time for them to take care of business.

Dan Harms, 53, of Henderson said he needed to get his driver's license renewed, and time was running out.

"I am a procrastinator, and I think today I learned my lesson," he said. "I came here around 10 a.m. and was told I couldn't do anything that had to do with driver's licenses. I was told to check back and did so a few times.

"Finally, I came by and things were rolling."

Jor Bradley, 24, of Green Valley lost her driver's license and needed a replacement immediately.

"It's scary losing your license and you just want to get a new one as soon as possible," she said. "I called ahead this morning to see what I needed to bring, and was told about the problem and couldn't believe it.

"I'm so happy things are working again," she said. "The DMV is more important that people realize. When it's down, it puts a lot of people in a bind."

DMV employees could still renew auto registrations and register new vehicles.

Jacobs said the department was working on a "patch" to go around the state computer and get into the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. But the system was restored while the state technicians were trying to determine how to bypass the state's mainframe computer.

Monday's computer failure is different from a problem the department suffered last month, Jacobs said. At that time, a data link broke down, causing the department to cancel most of its programming.

The two problems were unrelated, said Jacobs.