I do not think it is the responsibility of a business or a government to protect you from yourself. If a park offers an attraction with a defect or that is poorly maintained or operated, then yes, that park should be held accountable. But if, as a random example, your kid slips out of a lap bar and stands up on a ride, or you try to pass your kid from one ride vehicle to another, and your kid is maimed or killed, YOU should be held responsible, not rewarded with tens of millions of dollars.

There have been a lot of changes at the Disneyland Resort theme parks in recent years in an effort to make the parks safer.

How much of the changes over the past few years are state mandated and how many originated from Disney's internal safety/security staffers, I do not know. Signs about certificates of compliance are displayed on attractions, new and refined fencing abounds (usually well themed), gates have been added to loading areas (also usually well themed), doors have been locked and wired with alarms, new procedures for Cast Member access to attractions have been implemented, some restraints have been modified or added, lit exit signs have been added, in-vehicle warning signs have been added, and multilingual warning spiels have been added.

However, more than changing fencing, more than putting in gates in a loading area, more than constantly playing safety spiels, more than having the news media broadcast exactly how many people have bruised themselves on a ride in the last five years, the most effective way to keep the park safe is PEOPLE.

It's simple:

Hire good employees. Whether engineers, operators, or mechanics, bright employees are needed. This is going to require that you offer pay that is high enough for you to have plenty of qualified candidates to choose from. If a college kid can make more working at a local burger joint, you're going to get the leftovers.

Train them well. Good training takes time and it takes good trainers, but the investment pays off.

Retain them for a decent amount of time. When someone who has been around for a year is considered an old-timer, you're in trouble. A lack of organizational memory and experience can be problematic. Pay and treatment are key to this. Keeping bright ride operators through their time in college or longer (for those who seek a career with the Company) will do wonders, instead of having a revolving door that loses good Cast Members after a few months. Mechanics who know an attraction inside-out and have dealt with it since it was built will know how to prevent mechanical failures.

I need to add another point. I still say you are, and should be, the person with the most control over your safety at a theme park (see my previous column on the subject) so...

4. Hold guests reasonably accountable for their actions. Guest who behave unsafely should be kicked out. Guests who injure themselves and their own children through their own carelessness should not be rewarded with generous monetary settlements. Ultimately, this may require state legislation that spells out "rider responsibility".

Also, if a handful of guests injure themselves with the same injury over the course of decades on an attraction, it doesn't necessarily mean that something is wrong with the attraction or that the attraction needs to be changed. Certainly, park management can choose to modify an attraction they own to prevent those injuries, but I don't think that should be obligated.

Taking all of this into consideration, however, even rare freak accidents should not result in guest fatalities at Disney theme parks. Traditionally, Disney attractions have been designed and built with redundancies that will keep a part or system failure from resulting in tragedy. From everything I’ve read and observed, the fatal accidents on Big Thunder and the Columbia were not inevitable, a fact that contributes to their tragic nature.

“Revenge of the Sith�?
Moving on to something a little less disastrous...I started out this column talking about something loosely related to Disney, and will bookend it with something else loosely related to Disney. George Lucas announced that Episode III of "Star Wars" would be titled "Revenge of the Sith". That's certainly a better title than "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones". Maybe in "Revenge of the Sith", we can get some explanation as to what Darth Maul meant in Episode I when he said "At last we will have our revenge." Revenge for what? And maybe we'll learn that there really was an attack of the clones in "Attack of the Clones". Hopefully, Lucas can redeem himself and give the masses a great film that will form a great trilogy along with "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back" (no Ewoks, please). Right now, "The Lord of the Rings" holds the title for “Best…Trilogy…EVER�?, as far as I'm concerned.

Will we see Jar-Jar Binks meet a painful demise? One thing's for sure- we won't see James Toombs Kirk.

There’s still time to enjoy this Summer, everyone. Go outside and play- safely.