Signing your life away to go on an dodgy submarine

Del2005

Reading up about the people who died on the Titan and how they signed waivers saying that they knew it was experimental and they could die. I know in the EU you can't sign away your rights so the document is a waste of time. Do these waivers work in the US system?

Caranica

We'll find out soon enough, legal cases probably filed already

NUTLEY BOY

The first thing I would be looking at on the waiver form would be an indication of the country whose laws apply to the contract.

When you find that fact you can then establish if contracting out is allowable or not or on what basis.

On the criminal side it will be interesting to see if the owners or operators face charges.

Doubtless, it will be argued that the consent(s) of the now deceased will negative potential criminal proceedings. IMHO the nature of the matter is such that consent is probably contextually irrelevant.

StupidLikeAFox

Not a legal expert, but I would assume that if a bus driver gets you to sign something to say the brakes may not work and you could die, I don't think that would get him off the hook if they failed and you died.

The submarine company seemed to be proud that their machine was uncertified and of their cavalier attitude to safety. Surely there are some minimum standards that seafaring vessels for hire have to conform to, I don't think a waiver will get them out of those obligations, assuming they exist

Marcusm

I doubt there will be significant assets to discharge any claim which is lodged so it’s likely academic.

CIARAN_BOYLE

No matter what there are certain things you can't sign away.

There's an argument that nothing is 100% safe and a waiver may provide protection against ordinary risks.

Imo if everyone did their best a waiver may have protected someone. Thing is there's clear evidence of negligence. No waiver in the world will protect against negligence.

Atlantic Dawn

What I was surprised with is the vessel the sub launched from, the Polar Prince, was Canadian flagged. If you were planning to have a more relaxed regulatory regime you would choose one of about 20 flag of convenience countries where rules would be less stringent.