diff --git a/sqlite3.go b/sqlite3.go
index efb7cca..758cfdf 100644
--- a/sqlite3.go
+++ b/sqlite3.go
@@ -292,10 +292,11 @@ func (d *SQLiteDriver) Open(dsn string) (driver.Conn, error) {
 
 		// _busy_timeout
 		if val := params.Get("_busy_timeout"); val != "" {
-			busy_timeout = int(strconv.ParseInt(val, 10, 64))
+			iv, err := strconv.ParseInt(val, 10, 64)
 			if err != nil {
 				return nil, fmt.Errorf("Invalid _busy_timeout: %v: %v", val, err)
 			}
+			busy_timeout = int(iv)
 		}
 
 		if !strings.HasPrefix(dsn, "file:") {
diff --git a/sqlite3_test.go b/sqlite3_test.go
index 3e89746..1d06fd4 100644
--- a/sqlite3_test.go
+++ b/sqlite3_test.go
@@ -640,7 +640,7 @@ func TestTimezoneConversion(t *testing.T) {
 	zones := []string{"UTC", "US/Central", "US/Pacific", "Local"}
 	for _, tz := range zones {
 		tempFilename := TempFilename()
-		db, err := sql.Open("sqlite3", tempFilename+"?loc="+url.QueryEscape(tz))
+		db, err := sql.Open("sqlite3", tempFilename+"?_loc="+url.QueryEscape(tz))
 		if err != nil {
 			t.Fatal("Failed to open database:", err)
 		}
@@ -845,7 +845,7 @@ func TestStress(t *testing.T) {
 func TestDateTimeLocal(t *testing.T) {
 	zone := "Asia/Tokyo"
 	tempFilename := TempFilename()
-	db, err := sql.Open("sqlite3", tempFilename+"?loc="+zone)
+	db, err := sql.Open("sqlite3", tempFilename+"?_loc="+zone)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal("Failed to open database:", err)
 	}
@@ -888,7 +888,7 @@ func TestDateTimeLocal(t *testing.T) {
 	db.Exec("INSERT INTO foo VALUES(?);", dt)
 
 	db.Close()
-	db, err = sql.Open("sqlite3", tempFilename+"?loc="+zone)
+	db, err = sql.Open("sqlite3", tempFilename+"?_loc="+zone)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal("Failed to open database:", err)
 	}