diff --git a/lib/Path/Tiny.pm b/lib/Path/Tiny.pm
index 92f177b..8f40ac9 100644
--- a/lib/Path/Tiny.pm
+++ b/lib/Path/Tiny.pm
@@ -40,8 +40,7 @@ sub THAW   { return path( $_[2] ) }
 my $HAS_UU; # has Unicode::UTF8; lazily populated
 
 sub _check_UU {
-    local $SIG{__DIE__} = sub { }
-      if $SIG{__DIE__}; # prevent outer handler from being called
+    local $SIG{__DIE__}; # prevent outer handler from being called
     !!eval {
         require Unicode::UTF8;
         Unicode::UTF8->VERSION(0.58);
@@ -49,12 +48,14 @@ sub _check_UU {
     };
 }
 
-my $HAS_PU;             # has PerlIO::utf8_strict; lazily populated
+my $HAS_PU;              # has PerlIO::utf8_strict; lazily populated
 
 sub _check_PU {
-    local $SIG{__DIE__} = sub { }
-      if $SIG{__DIE__}; # prevent outer handler from being called
+    local $SIG{__DIE__}; # prevent outer handler from being called
     !!eval {
+        # MUST preload Encode or $SIG{__DIE__} localization fails
+        # on some Perl 5.8.8 (maybe other 5.8.*) compiled with -O2.
+        require Encode;
         require PerlIO::utf8_strict;
         PerlIO::utf8_strict->VERSION(0.003);
         1;