Officials in Connecticut urged residents to postpone visits to the state's Department of Motor Vehicles branches, a day after computer outages caused massive delays.
DMV officials said Tuesday's delays were caused by intermittent outages of computer processing and severe slowdowns of processes that occurred during customer transactions. The delays then trickled down and negatively impacted wait times.
"The Department of Motor Vehicles is advising customers tonight that they face the possibility of longer waits Wednesday as officials work to resolve a problem with intermittent computer outages in branches statewide," said Bill Seymour, a spokesman for the DMV.
Connecticut residents needing to renew driver's licenses or identification cards have been advised to visit AAA instead of going to the DMV. Customers with expiring credentials have been given a grace period to renew.
"We know this is an inconvenience to our customers and we are working around the clock to resolve this matter, said DMV commissioner Michael Bzdyra. "We also want customers who have expiring credentials to know that they will be given a grace period to get their renewals done."
Some drivers in Norwalk chose not to heed the DMV's suggestion, braving hourslong waits for service. Some said they didn't hear the warning, but had already waited for too much time to go home.
"You can't leave because you've already put in all this time," said Gregory Hall.
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The DMV is expected to return to full operations on Thursday.
The DMV has been plagued by computer problems since switching to a new system last August.
Last week, the state announced it was ending an agreement with 3M, the company hired to handle the computer system modernization overhaul.
