diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 7f366bb4..46cf5b5b 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 Current release
 ---------------
 
+What's new in psycopg 2.5.2
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+- Fixed segfault pickling the exception raised on connection error
+  (:ticket:`#170`).
+
+
 What's new in psycopg 2.5.1
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
diff --git a/psycopg/error_type.c b/psycopg/error_type.c
index 106b87a7..75761e81 100644
--- a/psycopg/error_type.c
+++ b/psycopg/error_type.c
@@ -163,8 +163,16 @@ psyco_error_reduce(errorObject *self)
     if (2 != PyTuple_GET_SIZE(tuple)) { goto exit; }
 
     if (!(dict = PyDict_New())) { goto error; }
-    if (0 != PyDict_SetItemString(dict, "pgerror", self->pgerror)) { goto error; }
-    if (0 != PyDict_SetItemString(dict, "pgcode", self->pgcode)) { goto error; }
+    if (self->pgerror) {
+        if (0 != PyDict_SetItemString(dict, "pgerror", self->pgerror)) {
+            goto error;
+        }
+    }
+    if (self->pgcode) {
+        if (0 != PyDict_SetItemString(dict, "pgcode", self->pgcode)) {
+            goto error;
+        }
+    }
 
     {
         PyObject *newtuple;
diff --git a/tests/test_module.py b/tests/test_module.py
index 6f30b2e6..b2f5279d 100755
--- a/tests/test_module.py
+++ b/tests/test_module.py
@@ -279,6 +279,21 @@ class ExceptionsTestCase(ConnectingTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(e.pgcode, e1.pgcode)
         self.assert_(e1.cursor is None)
 
+    @skip_before_python(2, 5)
+    def test_pickle_connection_error(self):
+        # segfaults on psycopg 2.5.1 - see ticket #170
+        import pickle
+        try:
+            psycopg2.connect('dbname=nosuchdatabasemate')
+        except psycopg2.Error, exc:
+            e = exc
+
+        e1 = pickle.loads(pickle.dumps(e))
+
+        self.assertEqual(e.pgerror, e1.pgerror)
+        self.assertEqual(e.pgcode, e1.pgcode)
+        self.assert_(e1.cursor is None)
+
 
 def test_suite():
     return unittest.TestLoader().loadTestsFromName(__name__)