DMV computer system crashes halting services

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Operations at the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles ground to a halt Thursday afternoon after a statewide computer system failure that stopped in person services for an hour and kiosk and online services for several hours.

The MyDMV portal remained offline Thursday evening.

The interruption made Marley Robert’s first ever visit to the DMV one to remember for a bad reason beginning before the systems went down.

“They asked for documents that weren’t in the handbook,” she said, “so then I had to go back home, get the documents, and then drive all the way back here.”

The computers crashed soon after she returned, and Roberts said she tried waiting out the system failure for an hour before giving up and going back home.

Roberts said she learned the in-person operations had been restored when got a text from the DMV that her ticket number had been called.

“So I drove all the way back here just to stand in line to get a new ticket,” she said.

DMV Spokesman Kevin Malone said their computers lost contact with the state server, and while it wasn’t clear what caused the disruption he was confident that it wasn’t malicious.

“The problem was entirely within the State of Nevada network so it wasn’t any kind of outside attack or anything like that,” he said.

Malone said the system shouldn’t have lost any data so transactions before the 12:30 p.m. glitch should have been preserved.

Roberts said she hopes her future visits to the DMV run smoother than her first.

“This is a Thursday,” she said. “Adults who are working or having jobs, if they’re in my situation they’re losing their entire work day to the system, and I would hope the communication would be a little clearer.”

Malone couldn’t say exactly when all systems would be back online.