diff --git a/src/basic/terminal-util.c b/src/basic/terminal-util.c
index c2ff3ca85a..1f5204cca5 100644
--- a/src/basic/terminal-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/terminal-util.c
@@ -434,6 +434,18 @@ int terminal_vhangup_fd(int fd) {
         return RET_NERRNO(ioctl(fd, TIOCVHANGUP));
 }
 
+int terminal_vhangup(const char *tty) {
+        _cleanup_close_ int fd = -EBADF;
+
+        assert(tty);
+
+        fd = open_terminal(tty, O_RDWR|O_NOCTTY|O_CLOEXEC);
+        if (fd < 0)
+                return fd;
+
+        return terminal_vhangup_fd(fd);
+}
+
 int vt_disallocate(const char *tty_path) {
         assert(tty_path);
 
diff --git a/src/basic/terminal-util.h b/src/basic/terminal-util.h
index 84d4731ea8..f8a30bbb64 100644
--- a/src/basic/terminal-util.h
+++ b/src/basic/terminal-util.h
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ const char* color_mode_to_string(ColorMode m) _const_;
 ColorMode color_mode_from_string(const char *s) _pure_;
 
 int terminal_vhangup_fd(int fd);
+int terminal_vhangup(const char *tty);
 
 int terminal_set_size_fd(int fd, const char *ident, unsigned rows, unsigned cols);
 int proc_cmdline_tty_size(const char *tty, unsigned *ret_rows, unsigned *ret_cols);
diff --git a/src/core/crash-handler.c b/src/core/crash-handler.c
index 056cb103fe..26e59b92d2 100644
--- a/src/core/crash-handler.c
+++ b/src/core/crash-handler.c
@@ -165,6 +165,7 @@ _noreturn_ static void crash(int sig, siginfo_t *siginfo, void *context) {
                                          "MESSAGE_ID=" SD_MESSAGE_CRASH_SHELL_FORK_FAILED_STR);
                 else if (pid == 0) {
                         (void) setsid();
+                        (void) terminal_vhangup("/dev/console");
                         (void) make_console_stdio();
                         (void) rlimit_nofile_safe();
                         (void) execle("/bin/sh", "/bin/sh", NULL, environ);