php laravel: response 200 produces 500 error every so often

Even though I return 200 I get a 500 response about every 50th request:

public function ping()
{
    $user = DB::select(DB::raw("select top 1 * from [users] where [users].[id] = 1;"));
    // die(var_dump($user));

   return response('Success', 200);
}

Uncommenting die() eliminates the problem. So I think laravels response function might be causing the problem.

via Chris