Sad story for sure :( condolences to the family and friends.
I think with this sport we take on a certain amount of risk by participating... everyone does their best to minimize it, but there are still freak situations - as there are in anything too. Frangible lines, releasable harnesses... too much. Good for 99.99999% of the situations is good enough, IMO. More things to go wrong is bad.
Had a kite death loop on me when a solo launch didn't work and a tip wrapped in a bridle. Increased my hatred of delta kites... Released the QR. Single front line system IIRC but I needed 2 hands on the QR (terrible design!) before it would release 
but that didn't stop the loop. Released the leash just as the kite ripped from LE to TE and dumped the power. No loss IMO...
There are times when no matter how well trained or fast your QR Reflex is, you're going to get spanked. Hopefully they are going to be very few and far between for all of us...
