A friend of mine offered to let me join her family on their family vacation to Gatlinburg, and she had always wanted to try a big coaster but was scared to, but felt okay if she was with me since I knew what I was talking about with them, and wanted me to pick a big one at Dollywood to ride when we went. A few weeks later, the NTG accident happened and she seemed fine after I explained the numerous scenarios for what happened, and she still wanted to do it.
So we get to Gatlinburg and go to Dollywood. I decided to start with Wild Eagle since it felt so high tech and safe in addition to not being that scary of a ride. In the queue line, the first thing she does is RUNS to the test seat, even though I tell her I'm bigger than her and fit fine. I even EXPLAINED that the NTG accident could have been caused by the woman not fitting properly! But she still tried the test seat, and like me, fit. We then went to the ride, and in the queue I keep getting all these crazy questions. "So how many people've died on this?" I just told her that nobody had been killed by it and that it was a brand new ride that was very safe. "How do they know that all the bolts are okay and such?" I just told her that pretty much every park inspects their rides daily and that Cedar Point has a night shift that does it, and Dollywood probably does too. "Are you sure?"
By the end of the day, I had her on Mystery Mine, even though she KNEW it was made by one of the companies involved in the NTG accident. She didn't like it (I advised her that I didn't like it, and she didn't either...for the same reasons) as does anybody who rides it, but we had a ton of fun with a Thunderhead double dip that day! We literally got off and walked right back on! And both of us enjoyed it!
So while that story has a happy outcome, I'd have to say that if you've ridden a lot of roller coasters (even if you're GP) you're probably going to continue riding them even if there's an accident. However, if you're considering getting on your first coaster but having second thoughts, an accident could put you off. I feel like most of the "ZOMG ARE R0LLER C0A$TERZ S@FE?????" crowd are people who've never ridden one.
