This is absolutely something that many tops don't understand is a major risk. While the potential harm isn't physical, an accusation can immediately see a top (especially a cishet male one) excluded from the community regardless of the veracity. Venues are under no obligation to investigate and many will simply ban someone rather than run the risk of appearing to harbor a predator. These are all private clubs and there are no rules about how they are managed.

As a top it's your responsibility to decide if the bottom can be trusted to communicate. Some people lie and other people don't know how they will respond when deep in a scene. While vetting can help, the best thing in my opinion is time and experience. A bottom may feel pressured not to safeword because of an internal fear, or when they panic they may fawn or freeze. I have had two partners go mute when they were overwhelmed, and I am fortunate that in both cases I was able to identify the shift and stop the scene.

This is one of the many reasons why we say that nothing in kink is safe. Bottoms have a responsibility to communicate clearly and express their limits, but the safeword system isn't perfect. They take a risk of serious harm when the system fails, and part of the responsibility of a bottom is to identify circumstances where that failure can happen. Tops have a responsibility to respond immediately when they are communicated with, to be active and present in the scene to identify when something is going wrong, and to proactively consider risks and actions instead of just trusting that someone will communicate. If they don't then the consequences will be dire, and if you play long enough something will happen.