You're paying to the appearance of danger. Nobody gets on a ride believing there's a significant risk of injury.
I doubt this one was the girl's fault, but I suspect a lot of others are the rider being a dumb ass. I once saw a guy TRY to get on a roller coaster with an infant. The fact that the attendant had to AGRUE with him make me want to smack him, but not before he would have handed the infant to someone...
I don’t know. If they haul you up to 150 feet and drop you, you assume a certain amount of risk if the brakes don’t work. It’s simple physics.
We used to have a metal ferris wheel where I worked. When it got stormy looking, you kept the wheel going until you heard thunder. Then you closed it. You just took the risk that the wheel wasn’t one of the first things hit. It took a while to unload everyone.