diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 9a56dafe92..7d65b43929 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
 Changes with Apache 2.0.33-dev
+
+  *) Fix segfault and display error when SSLMutex file can not be
+     created.  [Adam Sussman <myddryn@vishnu.vidya.com>]
+
   *) Add reference counting to mod_mem_cache cache objects to
      better manage removing objects from the cache.
      [Bill Stoddard]
diff --git a/modules/ssl/ssl_engine_init.c b/modules/ssl/ssl_engine_init.c
index b587235a06..c7a9776454 100644
--- a/modules/ssl/ssl_engine_init.c
+++ b/modules/ssl/ssl_engine_init.c
@@ -214,7 +214,9 @@ int ssl_init_Module(apr_pool_t *p, apr_pool_t *plog,
     /*
      *  initialize the mutex handling and session caching
      */
-    ssl_mutex_init(s, p);
+    if (!ssl_mutex_init(s, p)) {
+        return HTTP_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR;
+    }
     ssl_scache_init(s, p);
 
     /*
diff --git a/modules/ssl/ssl_engine_mutex.c b/modules/ssl/ssl_engine_mutex.c
index 8164d28b69..fb0f06b413 100644
--- a/modules/ssl/ssl_engine_mutex.c
+++ b/modules/ssl/ssl_engine_mutex.c
@@ -70,8 +70,12 @@ int ssl_mutex_init(server_rec *s, apr_pool_t *p)
         return TRUE;
 
     if (apr_lock_create(&mc->pMutex, APR_MUTEX, APR_LOCKALL, APR_LOCK_DEFAULT,
-                        mc->szMutexFile, p) != APR_SUCCESS)
+                        mc->szMutexFile, p) != APR_SUCCESS) {
+        ssl_log(s, SSL_LOG_CRIT|SSL_ADD_ERRNO,
+                   "Cannot create SSLMutex file `%s'",
+                    mc->szMutexFile);
         return FALSE;
+    }
     return TRUE;
 }