DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Action Park: The Second Time's the Charm

 

Notoriously dangerous Action Park is reopening June 13, 2015, despite its murderous history.

 

Located in Vernon, New Jersey, the rides at Action Park caused six deaths during the eighteen years it was open to the public. The amusement park opened in 1978, but closed in 1996 due to rising insurance bills and the expenses spent on injured patients. According to News Week, Action Park was so dangerous that the theme park had to buy more ambulances for the township of Vernon to keep up with the demand that their rides caused.

 

But just what made Action Park so dangerous?

 

The owner, Gene Mulvihill, had a great vision for his park, but not a great method of employment. To get hired, ride designers only needed to have a good idea for an attraction, rather than any type of physics or engineering degree. This resulted in many hazardous attractions.

 

The Alpine Slide was one of these poorly created rides. It was a massive concrete and fiberglass slide: so large that riders had to take a ski lift to get to the top. According to hospital records, the ride cause 14 bone fractures and 26 head injuries within the years 1984 and 1985.

 

The attendees would ride down in carts with no steering, and riders would frequently come off the Alpine Slide with massive burns all over their body from trying to physically steer their high-speed carts. Photos of patrons with torn skin were posted at the bottom of the ride as a warning.

 

In addition, according to Sometimes Interesting, the carts had faulty breaks, resulting in only two speeds: terrifyingly fast and excruciatingly slow. However, it was not uncommon for fast carts to be let down the hill right after slow carts. This caused collisions and further injuries.

 

The Alpine Slide was also the location of the first death at Action Park. As reported by News Week, a 19-year-old employee’s cart jumped a track on July 8, 1980. The teenager suffered a head injury that inevitably killed him.

 

Another faulty attraction at Action Park was their tidal pool. Nicknamed the “Grave Pool”, this pool was 100 feet wide and 250 feet long. According to Something Interesting, it was one of the first wave pools in the United States. The online magazine also reports that the pool had twelve lifeguards on duty at all times, but it still managed to kill three people.

 

Part of the reason for so many deaths was poor swimming and overcrowded conditions. Patrons were known to bump into and nearly drown each other in an effort to get out of the pool. Furthermore, the wave pool’s water had a different buoyancy than that of the ocean, and swimmers underestimated how to move in order to keep their heads above the waves.  Lifeguards on average rescued about thirty people per weekend.

 

However, the wave pool wasn’t the only dangerous water attraction at the park. The Cannonball Loop was the most treacherous of all the rides. Designed on a napkin by Gene Muhlvihill, this ride was only open for a month. As reported by New York Daily News, the water slide had a 360-degree vertical loop that shot patrons out into a shallow pool.

 

Not only was this attraction poorly designed, it was also poorly tested. Gene Muhlvihill reportedly offered employees 100 dollars to test out the ride, and despite multiple bloody noses and head injuries, he opened it to the public. Fortunately, the New Jersey Advisory Board on Carnival Amusement Ride Safety shut down the ride shortly after it opened, according to News Week. Unfortunately, they were unable to put a stop to it before one patron got stuck in the top of the loop. An emergency hatch was put in to rescue future stranded riders.

 

Electrocution was another issue at Action Park. On the Kayak Experience, a 27-year-old man fell out of his boat and his bare foot touched a metal grating that had been electrified by an exposed wire. As reported by News Week, he went into cardiac arrest and died on the spot. Two members of his family were hospitalized for electrocution but survived.

 

Of course, there were other problems within Action Park aside from ill-constructed rides. The amusement park had an undertrained teenage staff that was not equipped to enforce the necessary rules and regulations. Ride attendants were as young as fourteen years old. There were also rumors about alcohol being dispersed too liberally.

 

The list of injuries related to Action Park is staggering. In 1986, a local hospital reported 110 injuries at the park. This included 45 head injuries and 10 bone fractures. According to the New York Post, in 1987 a local emergency room director claimed that his ER saw five to ten Action Park guests per day.

 

However, everything has changed now that Gene Mulvihill’s son, Andrew, is reopening the park. “We want all the thrills and none of the spills,” he said to New Jersey Monthly.

 

One of the attractions Andrew Mulvihill plans to bring back is the Cannonball Loop. According to the New York Daily News, the new water slide will be named the Sky Caliber and features a 45-foot drop with a 30-foot loop. Each rider will have to get into a pod that utilizes roller coaster restraints. Despite being engineered for safety, the pods look rather coffin-esque.

 

A prototype of the ride currently exists and construction of the new loop will begin once it has the necessary approvals.

 

Mulvihill also has put into place stricter guidelines on patrons. Horseplay caused many of the injuries at Action Park, and the new owner is seeking to avoid that. The revised rules are already placed on the Action Park website. They state that anyone suspected to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol will not be admitted into the park. In addition, horseplay will not be permitted and life vests will be provided.

 

Action Park aims once again to be a place to take the family and have a great afternoon, rather than become your wife and kids’ gravesite. 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.