ParanoidObsessive posted... And then there's Action Park.
The problem is that safety devices aren't necessarily foolproof either. And people tend to get even more lax about safety when they assume the safety measures will handle everything. Odds are that ride DID have multiple safety factors, and one or more of them failed (potentially due to operator error, poor maintenance, or just poor design).
I was once at a park and watched the guy in front of me get on a ride, and he was so fat he literally broke the safety harness as they were strapping him in (and I stepped right the fuck off that line and never rode that ride again). But if it had held at first and only snapped once the ride started, then they would have had the false illusion of safety and he could have been killed once the ride was going.
Arguably what we kind of need is a "weight limit"/"you are too fat to ride this ride" restriction the same way we have height restrictions, but then you'd have people whining and crying about how that's body shaming and they're being discriminated against. Safety harnesses aren't really designed to fit around people who are as wide as they are tall - and trying to make them "one size fits all" just increases the potential failure points.
I agree with you. As a large person myself, I do not go onto Amusement Park rides anymore. There should be a weight limit on every ride. The last Amusement Park I went to, had a height and age limit on some of the rides, but no weight limit.