(UPDATE: DPS announces that the system for issuing drive licenses and ID cards is fully functional.)
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFSM) — A power outage led to a computer glitch that affected the drivers license system for the state of Oklahoma on Tuesday.
According to the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, a power outage Sunday morning caused a computer hardware problem. That problem caused the drivers license system to go down statewide.
As a result of the glitch, the department and all tag agencies weren’t able to process drivers licenses or identification requests. The department said it was working with the vendor who supplied the hardware to fix the problem.
“It is currently unknown how long this process will take,” the department said in a news release. “Again, all driver license stations and all tag agencies are affected by this issue.”
Lt. Kera Philippi, public information officer for the Public Affairs Division, said Sunday’s thunderstorms somehow caused the hardware issue, which broke down communication between the system in Oklahoma City and the vendor with which it must communicate to issue driver’s licenses and state identification cards.
“They can’t receive the information from the Oklahoma end to process them,” she said.
Philippi said she wasn’t sure when the system would be back up, but the vendor is working with Microsoft to get the hardware and software working properly again.
Philippi said an announcement would be made over the department’s Twitter page once the system was back up and running. Until then, those needing to renew or be issued a driver’s license or photo ID will need to wait.
