diff --git a/CHANGES/v2.4.md b/CHANGES/v2.4.md
index 422b9ad0392ed969b4f1ea5a48e1723e92e37f43..d19cc5733bc675cabbf0fabd262dfc1e505a1698 100644
--- a/CHANGES/v2.4.md
+++ b/CHANGES/v2.4.md
@@ -244,5 +244,6 @@ For users:
   - More robust backup for output files when running over multiple processes
   - Fixed a regression in the performances of GEOMETRY based flexible hills in \ref METAD and \ref PBMETAD
   - Fixed \issue{538}.
+  - Fixed potential issue with VMD plugins from 1.9.4 (\issue{545}, thanks to Lixin Sun).
 
 
diff --git a/src/cltools/Driver.cpp b/src/cltools/Driver.cpp
index 5d31302ee0c9aeba323f6b7f2fbe53b4b952e874..1b83024064341db532bfa97c92bc9fcd44aa53fd 100644
--- a/src/cltools/Driver.cpp
+++ b/src/cltools/Driver.cpp
@@ -386,6 +386,7 @@ int Driver<real>::main(FILE* in,FILE*out,Communicator& pc) {
   void *h_in=NULL;
   molfile_timestep_t ts_in; // this is the structure that has the timestep
   ts_in.coords=NULL;
+  ts_in.velocities=NULL;
   ts_in.A=-1; // we use this to check whether cell is provided or not
 #endif