The lobby of the Lynchburg office of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles was quiet and mostly empty Sunday afternoon.
A young man getting his license for the first time climbed behind the wheel of his car and honked the horn while the examiner watched. Inside, a mother waited to renew her commercial driver’s license and a woman waited for her husband to bring her birth certificate.
During normal operating hours, the Lynchburg office has many more customers, but in an unprecedented move the DMV opened Sunday and will be open today for people affected by a massive state computer failure last week.
Tina Evans came to the DMV on Sunday afternoon to renew her commercial driver’s license. She said she began to worry that her license would expire while she is on the road in another state.
The long haul truck driver went to the DMV office last week, but learned that office personnel couldn’t help her because of the computer crash.
“They were open, but they couldn’t do anything,” Evans said.
Her license expired on Sept. 19 and she worried about not having the card if she is on the road. She said authorities in other states look at the slip of paper given to drivers as they await their new license as though it’s fake.
Andrew Earle took advantage of the extended hours to get his motorcycle learner’s permit. He said he came in Saturday but did not pass the test, so he decided to come back Sunday and retake it. He passed.
“You can get in and out quick,” Earle said.
The DMV made the decision to extend its Saturday hours, and open Sunday and today over concern of a backlog of licenses and photo identification applications filed during the computer failure. The failure has been attributed to two circuit boards that control more than 400 of the state’s 3,600 computer servers.
The DMV also extended the valid period for licenses and ID cards that expired during the computer failure, and decided to not enforce the requirement to prove legal presence in the U.S. for those renewing their license during the extension.
On Aug. 25, Virginia state offices experienced a massive computer failure, affecting not only the DMV, but also 25 other state agencies.
The DMV is now asking the 4,240 drivers who had their photographs taken on the day the computer crashed to come in and get those pictures retaken because the files can’t be retrieved. More photograph files may also be inaccessible to the DMV.
The DMV estimated that 35,000 to 45,000 customers were unable to receive or renew their licenses or ID cards since the computer crash.
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