diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index e220788867b7165736d2c2b178428dba85f13b5e..9b8a27efd971e8ea9be2214040a8f3a478d9528c 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ ADD_DEFINITIONS(
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # OTB version number.  An even minor number corresponds to releases.
 SET(OTB_VERSION_MAJOR "2")
-SET(OTB_VERSION_MINOR "6")
+SET(OTB_VERSION_MINOR "8")
 SET(OTB_VERSION_PATCH "0")
 
 
diff --git a/Code/IO/otbSHPVectorDataIO.txx b/Code/IO/otbSHPVectorDataIO.txx
index d5f4258bf8fb76fa85346a9c53e39d22bcfe8cf9..17b8596e5f95766c6c859345d85256e91cca8409 100644
--- a/Code/IO/otbSHPVectorDataIO.txx
+++ b/Code/IO/otbSHPVectorDataIO.txx
@@ -714,6 +714,10 @@ namespace otb
 
           if(ogrCollection == NULL)
           {
+            if(ogrFeatures.empty())
+            {
+                itkExceptionMacro(<<"Problem while creating FEATURE_POINT: ogrFeatures is not initialized.");
+            }
             ogrFeatures.back()->GetDefnRef()->SetGeomType(wkbPoint);
             ogrFeatures.back()->SetGeometry(&ogrPoint);
           }
@@ -746,6 +750,10 @@ namespace otb
 
           if(ogrCollection == NULL)
           {
+            if(ogrFeatures.empty())
+            {
+                itkExceptionMacro(<<"Problem while creating FEATURE_LINE: ogrFeatures is not initialized.");
+            }
             ogrFeatures.back()->GetDefnRef()->SetGeomType(wkbLineString);
             ogrFeatures.back()->SetGeometry(&ogrLine);
           }
@@ -805,6 +813,10 @@ namespace otb
           }
           if(ogrCollection == NULL)
           {
+            if(ogrFeatures.empty())
+            {
+                itkExceptionMacro(<<"Problem while creating FEATURE_POLYGON: ogrFeatures is not initialized.");
+            }
             ogrFeatures.back()->GetDefnRef()->SetGeomType(wkbPolygon);
             ogrFeatures.back()->SetGeometry(ogrPolygon);
           }