I went to the Cardinals game last night. While there, I took these 2 pictures while specifically thinking of the gorilla incident:
Railing at stadium
3 year old girl in front of railing
Reasons why I'm posting this:
1) Like the zoo, a baseball game is considered a pretty safe event. Even the foul ball argument wouldn't really apply where we were sitting. Family event, tons of kids everywhere, not considered a dangerous activity whatsoever.
2) That railing is no more than 3 feet in height and probably closer to 2 1/2 feet. Not really any different than the zoo enclosure.
3) If that girl went over that railing, she would almost certainly die immediately as the fall is probably 30-40 feet (at least) unlike the zoo enclosure with bushes and then a moat.
4) If that mother sitting next to her didn't watch her "for a second", she could easily stand up and go over that edge in a matter of moments. In fact, the girl got up at one point to look around and the mother was holding onto her pants to make sure she didn't get too close to the railing.
Kids regularly go to these games. Kids regularly sit in these seats. If a kid were to topple over the edge, does that mean that the stadium now needs to put up huge railings and/or plexiglass in front of seats like this to keep it from happening again? Or, is it just reasonable to expect that there are dangerous places that you need to watch your children a bit more closely? I've been to the Cincinnati Zoo as well as others, and if you walk up to an exhibit that has that kind of fence, you make sure you watch your children more attentively. It's as simple as that. Yes, we've all had moments as parents where things can happen in a second when you turn your head, look at your phone, etc. But the zoo isn't just 4 hours of dangerous animals and standing next to fences like that. You walk for several minutes then come up to the exhibit. When I get up to that exhibit with that kind of fence, I make sure I watch more closely. When I'm walking the path, I can relax a bit more. It just isn't complicated.
I would argue that the seats at the baseball game where that girl was sitting are far more dangerous to her (and anyone else) than that gorilla exhibit. Yet that exists all the way around the stadium without specific signs saying to "be careful". It's a 3 hour game where it would be really easy to tune out and not pay attention to your kid. But if my kid was either looking over the edge or kept getting up or expressed any kind of desire to get near the railing or want to go over it ("Mommy, I'm going to go see the gorillas"), then I'd make sure I had my eyes on her for the entire 3 hours or I'd leave knowing the potential consequences if I didn't watch her for "just a second" and she went over. Much like crawling through that fence.