I fixed this on a Debian 9 box by switching to systemd. Also if you're stuck on shutdown, there's usually a safer way to power off or reboot the box:
alt-sysrq-9 [raises log level visibility on console]
alt-sysrq-s [requests sync of all filesystems]
alt-sysrq-u [requests remount or all filesystems read-only]
then
alt-sysrq-b [reboots]
or
alt-sysrq-o [powers off]
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