Hours-Long Outage Impacts All Driver License Offices In Colorado

DENVER (CBS4)- All county and state driver license offices in Colorado experienced an outage for several hours Monday. No documents could be issued for the first part of the day, leaving hundreds of people waiting for hours.

"I was the first in line at the Longmont DMV," said Julie Saucier, who went to the office to get her driver license. "Within seconds of walking to the counter I was told the computer system had failed."

Not only were all the offices in Colorado impacted, but every DMV across the country. A spokesperson for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, which operates the network that connects DMVs around the U.S., explained the system interface outage impacted verification services. That meant driver licenses, passports, vehicle titles, registrations and every service offered at the Department of Revenue offices could not be processed.

"They did everything they could to keep us updated," Saucier explained of staff at the Longmont office. "They were super, super helpful. I've never seen a DMV as helpful as this."

"A lot of people are a little impatient in there," David Sisneros, who was among the crowd waiting at the DMV office in Lakewood, said. "But, you're at the DMV, so that's what you got to expect, you know?"

The Division of Motor Vehicles in Colorado serves an estimated 100,000 people every month.

"You can imagine the impact this has. We appreciate everyone's patience," said DMV communications manager Julie Brooks.

Larry McPhale said he spent hours waiting to get the title for his vehicle at the Arapahoe County office.

"I spent like four hours down there waiting and going back, waiting and going back," he told CBS4's Kelly Werthmann. "I finally threw in the towel and said, 'Okay, mail me the title.'"

By about noon, the AAMVA said the nationwide outage was over and states had resumed operations. The cause for the outage remains under investigation, but an AAMVA spokesperson told CBS4 there is no indication of an external cause, or hacking.

"I hope everybody's information is protected, that's my main concern," Sisneros added.

The outage was linked to a nationwide issue that is impacting the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and driver license offices across the country. The AAMVA said there is no indication of an external cause, or hacking.

Some states experienced a short outage and have resumed operations. This is not the first time an outage has occurred.

AAMVA rreleased this statement: "From 10:00am - 2:00pm EST the network that connects motor vehicle agencies across the United States to each other and to various verification services experienced an outage. During this outage, there was no ability to process messages that support transactions of driver licenses and motor vehicle titles. This prevented most states from issuing/renewing driver licenses and issuing vehicle titles during that time. The network is operated by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). As of 2:00pm EST the network appears to be operational and stable.  AAMVA continues to monitor the network and will conduct a full analysis to determine the root cause of the outage."