I grew up in New Jersey & regularly went to an amusement/water park officially called Action Park that we jokingly referred to as “Traction Park,” “Accident Park”, & “Class Action Park” due to the DEATHS & FREQUENT INJURIES sustained there. (A class action in the US is a lawsuit in which a group of people with similar injuries file a major suit together against a single defendant.)
It seems shocking now that we continued to visit a place where injuries & deaths were a regular occurrence, but it was normal for kids to visit often. It was an amazingly fun park with essentially no rules & the danger just seemed to be a part of the thrill…as long as you didn’t get badly hurt or die. Even so, bad scrapes & minor injuries were the norm on many of my visits because of the way the place was set up. It was often said that it was a rite of passage to be bloodied at Action Park & prove your grit.
All the memories came flooding back when I saw this new book pop up:
The outlandish, hilarious, terrifying, & almost impossible-to-believe story of the dangerous amusement park where millions were entertained & almost as many bruises were sustained, told through the eyes of the founder's son.
With rave reviews (5 stars on Amazon & 4.5 stars on Goodreads), the book looks great so I’ll be reading it soon & thought it might interest you as well.
The book calls the place a “DIY Disneyland” & that’s an apt description. It was 1 of the first water parks in the US & pioneered ideas that were later widely copied. But this meant that the rides had not been previously tested & even crazier, it’s believed that the designers didn’t have enough training in engineering, physics, & safety to design the rides in the first place!
Curious about the rides?
Here’s just a few examples so you can understand how crazy this place was:
The above photo is of the Cannonball Loop ride. The giant tube filled with rushing water & propelled people down & then around a 360-degree vertical loop. I was too scared to go on, but from this image you can clearly see the park was insane. I’ve known many who got hurt & came close to drowning on that ride in particular.
There were multiple documented drownings in one of my favorite amusements there—the Wave Pool. Not only were the waves incredibly large at up to 8 ft (2m), but it was harder to swim in than the ocean because you were in chlorinated, fresh water & less buoyant. But hey, at least the water in the pool was a balmy 70–80 °F (21–27 °C).
Other rides were a shock to the system like the Tarzan Swing which you grabbed hold of swinging out 15 ft (4.5 m) up in the air before being dropped into a mountain spring-fed pool with temps in the 50–60 °F (10–16 °C) range. This is water so cold that people often went into shock & had to be rescued. I saw this happen many times myself. There’s also a documented case of a heart attack from the cold water shock as well.
There’s also a new HBO Documentary
Completely separate from the book, there’s a new documentary coming out about the park on August 27. Check out the “Class Action Park” trailer below:
What happened to Action Park?
Action Park closed in 1996, but then re-opened under new management in 2014 as Mountain Creek Water Park with tons of changes made to ensure visitor safety. I haven’t been back there, but I must admit that the thrill seeker in me is curious to go.