Quoted from Frax:

lol
Yeah, no, it's a f'ed up situation no matter who it was. Wasn't aware of the free day thing, so thanks for explaining!

Quoted from goatdan:

I know I made a huge block of text above that most people won't read, but... I guess here's another with new stats...
No. There isn't government oversight because if you are in this business, business friendly = safe. There is not a world where people flying off a slide and dying makes more people come to their park, or where there is any benefit to a slide that may kill people.
The park should be responsible for checking the designers credentials. In this case, the person who was running the park thought they knew better and decided to do something on their own. No one in the company had the nerve to stop them at any point and say it was stupid. The lawsuit is $20mil+ paid out, the ride was bought and will be taken out and trashed, and I guarantee their attendance dropped last year by at least 20% and will be the same or worse this year.
For a park that brought in 560,000 people at $55 for their max priced ticket in 2016. If we assume they had discounts and season passes and whatnot, a revenue base of $20 million for the year is reasonable. So they lost all that revenue for a year and more.
Water parks are *extremely* labor intensive ventures too. It's not like that is mostly profit. Additionally, they don't sell tons of stuff inside. The whole swim suits don't easily allow you to carry a wallet thing is tough. So, I guarantee that is a huge cut into their proceeds.
If attendance drops 20% per year (which if I were them, that would be a great scenario), that is a decrease in revenue (using the $20 mil estimate) of $4 million per year. And, that decrease probably sticks around for more like 5 years than 2.
Add this all up, and they are losing minimally $20 million (settlement) + $8 million (attendance decrease 2017 / 18) + $2 million (estimate to make the ride) = $30 million dollars.
There is NO scenario where a single ride would ever make up a $30 million revenue shortfall in one year in a park that only makes $30 million a year.
The risk / reward of building a dangerous ride like this is absurd. The head guy decided he needed it to get on the news and get publicity. He thought he could make it safe. And he could have with better design or a more boring ride, but he decided not to.
In the parks I worked for, we had checks and balances, and you would have been demoted or fired for even suggesting such a stupid thing. Apparently they had no checks on him, and now the company will pay the price that is much higher than keeping people safe to begin with.
And, to be clear, it sucks that what happened did, but no federal or state guy who checks on farm equipment all day or who inspects factories for worker safety would have known how to design that slide either. The guy who runs that park would have been in regular contact with people who could have, all of whom I'm positive told him he was insane and they refused. Hell, even their insurance guy thought it was fine.

Quoted from 85vett:

This doesn't give them a pass on going to far and the kid getting hurt but I don't think you are giving them enough credit for the creative minds they really have.