Yes as I understand it they have a suicide quick release that lets go of one side of the kite. The problem with those things is that a) they lose control of the kite so it can get damaged or do damage and b) Its a chore to rerig. The upshot is that kiters will be reluctant to use it. By the time the necessity to use it is unmistakeable it can be too late.
Effective depower is the most practical safety feature as I understand it. That handles the normal wind variation pretty comfortably. Squalls are dangerous though. You know how you can be sailing in a steady 15kn then a squall comes and gives you 10 min of 30kn. On a windsurfer you just get knocked over. On a kite you get dragged/lofted. Kiters just have to be a little more cautious about the weather than windsurfers.
ditching the kite's not really a problem, it's who / what it collects once it's disconnected from you that's the problem, and so you become less enthusiastic about ditching it until it's the last resort or not at all
anyway, i'm sure i read somewhere on kiteforum that "using your quick release is geigh"
Kites have pretty effective depower.....
Push the bar out, the kite loses grunt.
It's a bit like when poleys sheet-out on the boom in a windblast.
But even with high-depower kites....
If a kite is flying off 4 lines, it has the potential to power up in rogue gusts.
That's why kites have flag-out systems.
When a kite flags-out to 1 line, it virtually has zero power.
Explains why that guy got splattered on the side of a brickwall when he was kitesailing in the end of a hurricane over in America & got out of control........
I only saw 2 secs of it on the news..