diff --git a/train.py b/train.py
index 5a0e20e..6d3c157 100644
--- a/train.py
+++ b/train.py
@@ -691,7 +691,10 @@ def main(args):
                 logging.error(f"{Fore.LIGHTRED_EX} ************************************************************************{Style.RESET_ALL}")
                 time.sleep(2) # give opportunity to ctrl-C again to cancel save
                 __save_model(interrupted_checkpoint_path, unet, text_encoder, tokenizer, noise_scheduler, vae, args.save_ckpt_dir, args.save_full_precision)
-        exit(_SIGTERM_EXIT_CODE)
+            exit(_SIGTERM_EXIT_CODE)
+        else:
+            # non-main threads (i.e. dataloader workers) should exit cleanly
+            exit(0)
 
     signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, sigterm_handler)