diff --git a/priv/db/Makefile b/priv/db/Makefile
index 44071f0..2e85961 100644
--- a/priv/db/Makefile
+++ b/priv/db/Makefile
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ TZ_FILES=$(addprefix $(TZDIR)/, africa antarctica asia australasia backward etce
 
 tzout: DATE := $(shell date +%F)
 tzout: $(TZ_FILES)
-	TZ_VERSION=`perl -n -e 'm/^VERSION\s*=\s*(\S+)/ and print $$1;' $(TZDIR)/Makefile`; \
+	TZ_VERSION=`cat $(TZDIR)/version`; \
 	./tz-erl --version $$TZ_VERSION --date $(DATE) -o $@ $^
 
 $(TZ_FILES): $(TZDIR)
diff --git a/priv/db/tz-erl b/priv/db/tz-erl
index ad21bd4..bcc743e 100755
--- a/priv/db/tz-erl
+++ b/priv/db/tz-erl
@@ -522,6 +522,9 @@ sub last_active_epoch {
 
   my $day = on_to_day_of_month($on, $year, $month);
   print "On=$on, Year=$year, Month=$month ====> Day=$day\n";
-  return timelocal_nocheck(0, 0, 0, $day, $month, $year);
+  ## changing the below call to timelocal_nocheck stops the crash, but it feels wrong
+  ## especially since without it, it seems to produce a lot of "redundant" error messages
+  ## I don't have time to explore this now, but I'll come back to it
+  return timelocal(0, 0, 0, $day, $month, $year);
 }