diff --git a/middleware/408.js b/middleware/408.js
index efe0c64b..ffbb6066 100644
--- a/middleware/408.js
+++ b/middleware/408.js
@@ -2,10 +2,11 @@
 // handle time out errors
 function middleware(err, req, res, next) {
   res.header('Cache-Control','no-cache');
-
-  if( res.statusCode === 408 || (err.message.toLowerCase().indexOf('request timeout') !== -1) ){ 
+  var error = (err && err.message) ? err.message : err;
+  
+  if( res.statusCode === 408 || (error.toLowerCase().indexOf('request timeout') !== -1) ){ 
   	res.status(408); 
-  	res.json({ error: err && typeof err.message === 'string' ? err.message : 'request time out' });
+  	res.json({ error: typeof error === 'string' ? error : 'request timeout' });
   } else {
   	next(err);
   }
diff --git a/middleware/500.js b/middleware/500.js
index 0a423810..cc3f8325 100644
--- a/middleware/500.js
+++ b/middleware/500.js
@@ -4,9 +4,10 @@ var logger = require( 'pelias-logger' ).get( 'middleware-500' );
 function middleware(err, req, res, next) {
   logger.error( 'Error: `%s`. Stack trace: `%s`.', err, err.stack );
   res.header('Cache-Control','no-cache');
-  var error = err.message ? err.message : err;
+  var error = (err && err.message) ? err.message : err;
+
   if( res.statusCode < 400 ){ res.status(500); }
-  res.json({ error: err && typeof err.message === 'string' ? err.message : 'internal server error' });
+  res.json({ error: typeof error === 'string' ? error : 'internal server error' });
 }
 
 module.exports = middleware;
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 7de7eca9..df28593e 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "pelias-api",
   "author": "mapzen",
-  "version": "2.1.0",
+  "version": "2.2.0",
   "description": "Pelias API",
   "homepage": "https://github.com/pelias/api",
   "license": "MIT",