Morte del pilota nella gara automobilistica e responsabilità dell’organizzatore

The Bologna country court pronounces on the liability of a de facto car race organizer who delegated the setting up of event’s logistics to a third company. The case involved a driver who died after a crash during a rolling start procedure in which the green light was given by race director despite the car’s misalignment. The Court finds the race organizer liable for several reasons: firstly, for the track’s choice, in which there was an unprotected obstacle against which the driver crashed; secondly, according to art. 2049 of the Italian civil code, for the race director’s fault, who gave the green light notwithstanding car’s misalignment. The purpose of this paper is to point out various problems in auto race organizer’s liability. After having excluded that the subject found liable in the case at hand is a proper sports organizer (because he couldn’t even determine the time and the venue of the race), the paper analyses today’s Italian case law, that apply strict liability standards to racing organizers. Through a short comparison with American assumption of risk doctrine, the Author interrogates himself about the opportunity of enhancing the driver’s assumption of risks, to “rebalance” the system, nowadays excessively severe against car race organizers.