It's been ten years....

Well put. The morbid fascination and giving it a goofy name is bizarre.

Yeah, and the mention of it in nearly every post was obviously an attempt to get the name to stick.

I wasn't there, but I read about it on CoasterBuzz. It's a good thing that the event made enthusiasts wake up and start thinking more about their safety, but it's not news anymore. My advice is, if it still affects you a lot, maybe you need to see a professional to help you through it.

About 911, people showed a morbid fascination with it in the same way too. They bought all kind of merchandise, like commemorative coins, t-shirts, and bumper stickers reminding us about it. 9/11 even had a catchy slogan, "Never forget." I found that appalling.

Maybe Regulus has a trademark on "The Night of Silence" and wants to sell t-shirts and bumper stickers? (kidding, of course.)

I wasn't there, but did read about it. I felt terrible for the girl and her family/friends, but felt just as bad for the Kochs and other HW employees... Even if the girl did stand up and cause the incident, she died on their roller coaster. I can't imagine how badly Pat and others must have felt, and how hard it was to carry on running the park in the immediate days following the death. Pain was inflicted on many people that night...

Like Jeff said, though, some good did come out of it. Before that, it seemed that a fair amount of people considered it "cool" to violate safety rules and get away with it. Since then, not nearly as much. In the past decade, the worst infractions I've seen have been (what I'd assume to be) non-enthusiasts whipping out cameras on lift hills, or other similar stupid behavior. I assume non-enthusiast because their behavior were so blatantly obvious, they couldn't have realized the ride ops watch the lift hill, live or through video :) I distinctly remember Blue Streak and Mean Streak being stopped halfway up for confiscation (different days/visits) and seeing security chewing out some dude in the exit queue of MS after his bust. Enthusiasts behave themselves, or at least on the HWN events I've been to (I don't make many other events... hopefully more in the future)

^I really did not start going to events until after that but the only rule I see enthusiasts try to bend or break (and I admit I do this too) is asking for a reride if their is no one in line in my row.

That's not a safety violation, Touchdown.

I think the "general public" are far worse than coaster enthusiasts with all their I-Phones on the roller coasters. One flew past my head today on El Toro. And before anyone asks, I knew they were general public because they didn't fasten their seat belts and the staff had to do it for them, no enthusiasts would try to ride the bull without fastening their seat belt!

The people I feel sorry for in regards to that accident are the Koch's and the employees. She made a (very) bad decision that led to her death. As a tragedy, I see this as similar to someone killing themselves while drinking and driving.