diff --git a/src/column.rs b/src/column.rs
index 33af2b0..d21e8ee 100644
--- a/src/column.rs
+++ b/src/column.rs
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ impl Statement<'_> {
         let n = self.column_count();
         let mut cols = Vec::with_capacity(n as usize);
         for i in 0..n {
-            let s = self.column_name(i);
+            let s = self.column_name(i).unwrap(); // safe to unwrap as we're using only verified indices
             cols.push(s);
         }
         cols
@@ -39,11 +39,10 @@ impl Statement<'_> {
         self.stmt.column_count()
     }
 
-    pub(crate) fn column_name(&self, col: usize) -> &str {
-        // Just panic if the bounds are wrong for now, we never call this
-        // without checking first.
-        let slice = self.stmt.column_name(col).expect("Column out of bounds");
-        str::from_utf8(slice.to_bytes()).unwrap()
+    /// Returns the name of the column by index or None on out of bounds access. Panics when column name is not valid UTF-8
+    pub fn column_name(&self, col: usize) -> Option<&str> {
+        self.stmt.column_name(col)
+           .map(|x| str::from_utf8(x.to_bytes()).expect("Invalid UTF-8 sequence in column name"))
     }
 
     /// Returns the column index in the result set for a given column name.
@@ -73,7 +72,7 @@ impl Statement<'_> {
         let n = self.column_count();
         let mut cols = Vec::with_capacity(n as usize);
         for i in 0..n {
-            let name = self.column_name(i);
+            let name = self.column_name(i).unwrap(); // safe to unwrap as we're using only verified indices
             let slice = self.stmt.column_decltype(i);
             let decl_type = slice.map(|s| str::from_utf8(s.to_bytes()).expect("Invalid UTF-8 sequence in column declaration"));
             cols.push(Column { name, decl_type });
diff --git a/src/row.rs b/src/row.rs
index 9847a76..6961777 100644
--- a/src/row.rs
+++ b/src/row.rs
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ impl<'stmt> Row<'stmt> {
         let value = self.stmt.value_ref(idx);
         FromSql::column_result(value).map_err(|err| match err {
             FromSqlError::InvalidType => {
-                Error::InvalidColumnType(idx, self.stmt.column_name(idx).into(), value.data_type())
+                Error::InvalidColumnType(idx, self.stmt.column_name(idx).unwrap().into(), value.data_type())
             }
             FromSqlError::OutOfRange(i) => Error::IntegralValueOutOfRange(idx, i),
             FromSqlError::Other(err) => {
@@ -232,11 +232,11 @@ impl<'stmt> Row<'stmt> {
             }
             #[cfg(feature = "i128_blob")]
             FromSqlError::InvalidI128Size(_) => {
-                Error::InvalidColumnType(idx, self.stmt.column_name(idx).into(), value.data_type())
+                Error::InvalidColumnType(idx, self.stmt.column_name(idx).unwrap().into(), value.data_type())
             }
             #[cfg(feature = "uuid")]
             FromSqlError::InvalidUuidSize(_) => {
-                Error::InvalidColumnType(idx, self.stmt.column_name(idx).into(), value.data_type())
+                Error::InvalidColumnType(idx, self.stmt.column_name(idx).unwrap().into(), value.data_type())
             }
         })
     }