The internet remembers the world’s most dangerous amusement park

Reading time: 2 min — Spotted on Huffpost

Action Park, opened in Vernon, New Jersey in 1978 and closed in 1996, is known as one of the most dangerous amusement parks in the United States, if not the world. Quickly renamed “Accident Park», its attractions, designed by people without any qualifications, led to the death of six people, and resulted in thousands of fractures, head injuries and other injuries. On average, the local hospital received around 30 injured people coming from the park each weekend. By way of comparison, between 1987 and 2000, fifty-one people were killed at amusement parks across the United States.

The YouTube channel RealLifeLore returns to this sadly famous park, detailing in a video the accidents that have marred its eighteen years of activity. It was to the alpine toboggan that Action Park owes its first death. Described by a former regular as “a giant track perfect for ripping people’s skin off, disguised as a kiddie ride”, the toboggan had a long cement and fiberglass descent, which visitors descended, without helmets or protection, on roller sledges. Toboggans whose brake, sometimes non-existent, constantly blocked.

In 1980, a 19-year-old employee ran off the track and hit his head on a rock. The shock was fatal to him. In an attempt to reduce the number of accidents, rather than closing the attraction, the park team posted pictures of injured children at the start of the slide to warn those brave enough to take the plunge. Without success. Between 1984 and 1985 only, twenty-six serious head injuries and fourteen fractures were attributed to this alpine toboggan, which remained open until the closing of the park, more than ten years later.

Hundreds of lawsuits filed

A terrible toll to which is added that of the wave pool, nicknamed The grave pool, the pool-grave in French, because of the three deaths to his credit. This very deep pool, whose waves exceeded one meter in height, was undoubtedly the most dangerous attraction in the park. The twelve rescuers on duty rescued around thirty people a weekend. Around a lake, swimming pool or beach, the average is two rescues per season.

Another attraction, the most famous of the park, the Cannonball Loop, a water slide ending in a loop. According to the legend, related by an article of the site History, when the owners of the park wanted to test the slide using a dummy, it came out without a head. With little regard for safety, park director Gene Mulvihill then offered his employees $100 to test the attraction. Despite their bruises and bloody noses, he opened the slide anyway. An attraction so poorly designed that a customer got stuck at the top of the loop. Claustrophobes abstain.

In addition to poorly thought-out rides, RealLifeLore’s video reveals that many of the attractions were supervised by minors, with the youngest no older than 14. Worse, due to the park’s laxity in the consumption of alcoholic beverages, the majority, including the teenagers, were under the influence of alcohol.

Action Park finally closed in 1996, following hundreds of lawsuits against the park. Bought in 2010, it reopened in 2014, under the name of Mountain Creek Water Park, with new teams and new attractions. Having become a true phenomenon of pop culture, the Action Park is today the subject of many items, documentaries Where movieswho perpetuate his legend.