diff --git a/src/tracing/node_trace_writer.h b/src/tracing/node_trace_writer.h
index 5e5781479c689f..a91176ad4905a9 100644
--- a/src/tracing/node_trace_writer.h
+++ b/src/tracing/node_trace_writer.h
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ class NodeTraceWriter : public AsyncTraceWriter {
   int highest_request_id_completed_ = 0;
   int total_traces_ = 0;
   int file_num_ = 0;
-  const std::string& log_file_pattern_;
+  std::string log_file_pattern_;
   std::ostringstream stream_;
   std::unique_ptr<TraceWriter> json_trace_writer_;
   bool exited_ = false;
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-tracing-no-crash.js b/test/parallel/test-tracing-no-crash.js
index 5b11522911e75d..0ae402f5288cca 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-tracing-no-crash.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-tracing-no-crash.js
@@ -8,7 +8,15 @@ function CheckNoSignalAndErrorCodeOne(code, signal) {
   assert.strictEqual(code, 1);
 }
 
-const child = spawn(process.execPath,
-                    ['--trace-event-categories', 'madeup', '-e',
-                     'throw new Error()'], { stdio: 'inherit' });
+const child = spawn(process.execPath, [
+  '--trace-event-categories', 'madeup', '-e', 'throw new Error()'
+], { stdio: [ 'inherit', 'inherit', 'pipe' ] });
 child.on('exit', common.mustCall(CheckNoSignalAndErrorCodeOne));
+
+let stderr;
+child.stderr.setEncoding('utf8');
+child.stderr.on('data', (chunk) => stderr += chunk);
+child.stderr.on('end', common.mustCall(() => {
+  assert(stderr.includes('throw new Error()'), stderr);
+  assert(!stderr.includes('Could not open trace file'), stderr);
+}));