Indexing from cron run fails with MySQL Syntax Error

We are experiencing hundreds of these errors in our log when cron tries to update the index on our site:

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '301029995664 WHERE word = 'conducted'' at line 1 query: UPDATE sp_search_total SET count = 0,301029995664 WHERE word = 'conducted' in /www/htdocs/w00bdef4/drupal/drupal-6.17/modules/search/search.module in Zeile 287.

The error seems to be related to [...]SET count = 0,301029995664[...].
When I run a query with a decimal dot instead of the decimal comma [...]SET count = 0.301029995664[...] from myPHPAdmin, everythings works fine.

If that's the reason indexing fails: Why is search using a comma instead of a dot?

Related to this is: Those failed indexing attempts result in unclosed connections in the database, which eventually take down our sites, because max_user_connections for the database is exceeded.

Thanks

Jörg