diff --git a/fitters/src/KalmanFitterRefTrack.cc b/fitters/src/KalmanFitterRefTrack.cc
index 422ae280c38eace7521f7f7890755fa6253340dc..af7202ebd5a9c6ea0ba635f994a73f5155720b0d 100644
--- a/fitters/src/KalmanFitterRefTrack.cc
+++ b/fitters/src/KalmanFitterRefTrack.cc
@@ -1114,7 +1114,9 @@ KalmanFitterRefTrack::processTrackPoint(KalmanFitterInfo* fi, const KalmanFitter
   }
 
   // check
-  assert(fi->checkConsistency());
+  if (not fi->checkConsistency()) {
+    throw genfit::Exception("Consistency check failed ", __LINE__, __FILE__);
+  }
 
 }
 
@@ -1322,6 +1324,8 @@ KalmanFitterRefTrack::processTrackPointSqrt(KalmanFitterInfo* fi, const KalmanFi
   }
 
   // check
-  assert(fi->checkConsistency());
+  if (not fi->checkConsistency()) {
+    throw genfit::Exception("Consistency check failed ", __LINE__, __FILE__);
+  }
 
 }