‘It's Our Fault': DMV Speaks Out on Computer Glitch Causing Registration Issues

The DMV is promising to make good on a big mistake. A glitch in its new computer system has caused police to wrongly pull over drivers for having suspended registrations.

The DMV announced some big steps to take care of a big mess. Who gets the final bill, which will easily be in the thousands of dollars--if not more--remains the question.

Insurance agents like Katie Sartor have told the Troubleshooters they have worked untold hours to repair the damage to their clients, pulled over for driving with a suspended registration, even though that was not the case. “It's just years and years of doing this and we've never had a problem and all of the sudden coincides with the software change on the DMV's behalf and now we have a mess, a complete mess"

The DMV admits a bug in the agency's 26 million dollar computer modernization caused the problem. It falsely indicated people did not have auto insurance when they really did. Now the DMV wants to make it up to an unknown number of clients like Sartor's who have been ticketed, towed, and told to show up in court in part by refunding any fees, fines, or towing costs as long as drivers can prove they actually had vehicle insurance.

DMV Commissioner Andres Ayala says “Anything that was our fault, we will make the customer whole, because it's the right thing to do."

The agency will also hold off sending law enforcement any new lists of people with suspended registrations until it sorts out this mess bringing in extra bodies to work this weekend to make a big dent in a backlog of cases at its offices plus, the DMV will give drivers with mistakenly suspended registrations the paperwork to get them off the hook with the courts. The extra overtime to do this, and give people refunds though will be paid for from state coffers.

The Troubleshooters asked Ayala if the DMV will try to recover any from 3M, the software vendor. “Right now as this stands, DMV will refund for whatever those were and that's typically what happened in the past."

The Troubleshooters have told you about problems with 3M's software in other states, in reports dating back to 2014. Both Kansas and Montana had major issues for months, even years, with their DMV software.

We have asked 3M for a comment on these latest developments in Connecticut. We will let you know what the company has to say as soon as we hear back.

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