diff --git a/app/controllers/ping_controller.rb b/app/controllers/ping_controller.rb
index 3373da09..8ba2a7ad 100644
--- a/app/controllers/ping_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/ping_controller.rb
@@ -15,8 +15,9 @@ class PingController < ApplicationController
   private
 
   def postgres_connected!
+    # any unhandled exception leads to a HTTP 500 response.
     ApplicationRecord.establish_connection
     ApplicationRecord.connection
-    ApplicationRecord.connected?
+    raise ActiveRecord::ConnectionNotEstablished unless ApplicationRecord.connected?
   end
 end