diff --git a/lib/Catalyst/Plugin/Session/Store/Redis.pm b/lib/Catalyst/Plugin/Session/Store/Redis.pm
index 43c9b37..d0558ff 100644
--- a/lib/Catalyst/Plugin/Session/Store/Redis.pm
+++ b/lib/Catalyst/Plugin/Session/Store/Redis.pm
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ sub _verify_redis_connection {
     my $cfg = $c->_session_plugin_config;
 
     try {
-        $c->_session_redis_storage->ping;
+        $c->_session_redis_storage->ping or die "failed to ping";
     } catch {
         $c->_session_redis_storage(
             Redis->new(
diff --git a/t/ping.t b/t/ping.t
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95f0a5d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/ping.t
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+#/usr/bin/env perl
+#===============================================================================
+#Last Modified:  2014/09/03
+#===============================================================================
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+use Test::More;
+use Redis;
+
+unless ($ENV{SESSION_STORE_REDIS_PING} ) {
+    plan skip_all => 'Must set SESSION_STORE_REDIS_PING environment variable';
+}
+eval { require Test::RedisServer }
+    or plan skip_all => "Test requires 'Test::RedisServer'";
+eval { require Net::EmptyPort }
+    or plan skip_all => "Test requires 'Net::EmptyPort'";
+
+my $redis_server = eval { Test::RedisServer->new(
+        conf => {
+            port    => Net::EmptyPort::empty_port(),
+            timeout => 1,
+        }
+    ) }
+    or plan skip_all => 'redis-server is required to this test';
+
+my %connect_info = $redis_server->connect_info;
+$connect_info{server} =~ s/0\.0\.0\.0/localhost/;
+
+{
+    package RedisTimeoutTest;
+    use Catalyst qw/Session Session::Store::Redis Session::State::Cookie/;
+    RedisTimeoutTest->config(
+        'Plugin::Session' => {
+            expires => 20,
+            redis_server => $connect_info{server},
+        });
+    RedisTimeoutTest->setup;
+}
+
+my $c = RedisTimeoutTest->new;
+$c->session;
+my $sid = $c->sessionid;
+$c->store_session_data($sid, { key => 456});
+sleep 2;
+my $res = eval { $c->get_session_data($sid)->{key} } ;
+$res = $@ if $@;
+is (456, $res, 'reconnect');
+done_testing;