[patrickg_zill]

From an engineering viewpoint, one thing that jumps out to me at least, is that "100,000 people including many kids" had already ridden when this sad accident happened.

In terms of real-world testing, not even 100,000 tests (or maybe ~33,300 if each raft had 3 people on it) exposed the problem.

[teraflop]

That's giving them way too much benefit of the doubt. The problem had been exposed by tests before the fatal incident. A number of passengers were injured by airborne rafts over the course of two years -- and these injuries were reported and documented by lifeguards. The problem was known even before the ride opened, thanks to independent test results from an outside engineering company.

Schlitterbahn ignored and/or attempted to cover up all of these reports, as is documented in the indictment.