fails on line 2

check_pipe() {
    local -a status=("${PIPESTATUS[@]}")
    local limit=$1
    local ix

    if [ -z "$limit" ] ; then
        limit="${#status[@]}"
    fi
    for ((ix=0; ix != $limit ; ix++)); do
        if [ "${status[$ix]}" != "0" ] ; then
            error_handler
        fi
    done
}