So six deaths at that park? Out of how many millions of people who went there over the years and had a great time?
Posted on 09/10/2020 4:25:19 AM PDT by C19fan
New Jersey's Action Park was a place of extremes: The dangerous rides and water slides, the alcohol that flowed freely even, it seems, for the underage, the young staff more interested in partying than enforcing safety rules, and an owner who balked at being insured so he made up a fictional insurance company.
The injuries were so frequent at Action Park that it had its own ambulance. Six people died either at the park or after taking one of its rides.
A new documentary, Class Action Park, examines the nostalgia for those in New Jersey and New York who remember it as a rite of passage during the 1980s and '90s. But it also exposes the water park's underbelly and its tragedies.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Traction Park or Accident Park...it wad never called Class Action Park to my memory.
I'm going to bet this “documentary” is along the lines of Michael Moore/Morgan Spurlock hit job.
Got to love those early 80s hair styles....
They post this stupid article every year or so, usually in the spring time.
Never mind the fact that Great Adventure, which is about 2 hours south of Action Park, killed more people in a freakin Haunted Castle then Action Park did in its 20 years of operation.
But nobody writes articles about Six Flags being dangerous
Now they owned their out ambulances, I love how the story changes with the reporters trying to grab clicks
In the 70’s, we would have tripled that number.
I went here many times. I loved it. It was gorgeous, fun and the rides were excellent. Truly an adventure. We were blessed to be able to experience it before our culture became “Karenized” and litigation happy. Yes, there were tragic accidents and something could have been done to mitigate them prior to disaster. Still one of the best amusement parks that ever existed.
Sounds like it was a blast!
yup- i was there in my late teens in the 80’s. Almost drowned in that wave pool. I was in good shape- training for the Olympics- and that wave pool kicked the crap out of me. I did all i could to climb out without asking for help from a life guard cause i didn’t want to be embarrassed. After i climbed out i laid there on the grass for 15 minutes, body aching.
i remember reading years later they were testing a loopy de loop water ride for people. They realized there was an issue when the human dummies they were using were coming out the other side of the loopy de loop decapitated.
So six deaths at that park? Out of how many millions of people who went there over the years and had a great time?
Been there a couple of times in the 80’s. It was truly a right of passage and was a lot of fun. As for the deaths, the week I was there someone got electrocuted in on the kayak ride. When I went on the motor boats, the kid running the ride gave us one warning; “if you stop the boat it will sink.” My buddy stopped the boat, it sank.
During the same trip, my friend wiped out on the alpine slide, ripping the skin off his shoulder. Injury looked hideous and first aid wanted to send him to the hospital. Instead we drank more and went on the bungee jump. You had to weigh less than 225 to go on the bungee. I started the day at 225.5. When I went on the jump, I weighed 224.5. I ran around the park from ride to ride to make the weight. I went right through the air cushion and banged my back. If it wasn’t there, I would have been another statistic.
Best ride of all was the zero gravity water slide. You basically dropped 90 degrees the first 20 or so feet then you hit the slide. That ride removed more boys bathing suits than Kevin Spacey.
Overall, the park was great. Can’t imagine another park will ever be like Traction Park.
The comments at DM are great. They loved that place!
Wave Pools!!!!
I was in one in Arizona that threw people out of the water, it was so strong. Everybody loved it, especially my five kids. I actually thought one of them was going to drown from laughing at my feeble attempts to keep up with them.
“ They realized there was an issue when the human dummies they were using were coming out the other side of the loopy de loop decapitated.”
In the initial testing that evidently is not that uncommon. We were involved in the build of several rides out at 6 Flags Arlington TX. My boss begged to get to be the first person to ride a roller coaster that is mostly inside a dark building. They told him “no” and after the dummies came back missing arms and heads, he finally understood why. They run g sensor equipment to know how much to dial back the traction motors.
He got to witness the initial test and said he was amazed how violent it was.
Salt Lake City used to have a wave pool whose waves would easily capsize most small boats. You either had to float/swim in the deeper side of the pool, or swim to the shallow end. Trying to pull yourself up a ladder in the deep end was perilous!
I nearly spit coffee out of my mouth!
Those banana-seat bikes were bad-ass...natural wheelie bikes!
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