Action Park – Most Dangerous Water Park of All Time

I recently watched Class Action Park, which is a retrospective look back at one of the most infamous waterparks of all time. The film was a time capsule that brought me back to my days growing up in Brooklyn, NY.

Back in those tender years, no summer was ever complete without a trip to New Jersey for a day spent braving the long lines at Action Park. Years later, I realize that each visit was always a crap shoot to see who in our group would come out unscathed. Would someone end up with a bloodied nose after getting on one of the rides? Who would get scraped up on the Alpine Slide, a notorious no-brakes wheeled ride down a concrete-and-fiberglass track that invited calamity at every turn?

What Made Action Park So Dangerous

I could count the number of times I almost drowned in their massive freshwater pool that featured waves so high, lifeguards were required to save more than two dozen people each day.

Over the years, Action Park, had developed many nicknames. Locals referred to it as “Traction Park”. I think it’s safe to say with zero hesitation that it was without a doubt, probably the most dangerous water park that ever existed.

Action Park was one of the first modern water parks in the United States, opening in Vernon, New Jersey in 1978. Gene Mulvihill, the company’s founder and CEO, believed that amusement park guests should have control over their experience. He imagined the type of theme park where customers could control the rides, including how fast and high they went. Nothing unsafe about that at all, right?

Without a doubt, the craziest non-water ride in the entire park was the Alpine Slide. This was basically a huge track devised to rip people’s flesh off that was disguised as a kid’s ride. I have vivid recollections of riding down this incredibly long, cement-and-fiberglass-filled track in a wheeled cart to my impending doom.

Theoretically each rider was in charge of their own speed but the ride would constantly malfunction. Some carts didn’t have brakes, so you couldn’t slow down as you sped down this precarious concrete slope. Others carts had brakes which were locked, causing riders behind to inevitably slam into the ones in front of them. That ride, would ultimately become responsible for the park’s first fatality. According to New Jersey statistics, the Alpine Slide was responsible for at least 26 catastrophic head injuries and 14 fractures.

Some of the rides were more original than others. One “ride” consisted of a pair of diving cliffs, while another called Tarzan’s Swing involved swinging off a platform with a rope into the middle of a lake. The water however was so cold that lifeguards frequently had to save people from drowning. One park visitor had a heart attack after experiencing the swing.

Another one of the ill-devised attractions was the Tidal Wave Pool. This quickly became one of the park’s most infamous attractions. It was one of the first ones of its kind to open in the United States and rapidly developed a reputation for being the park’s scariest “ride”. It was dubbed “The Grave Pool” because it was filled with fresh water rather than sea water, which made patrons far less buoyant and put swimmers on expert mode trying to survive waves that reached 40 inches at full blast. On busy weekends, the dozen or so lifeguards on duty rescued an average of 30 people a day.

For me though, the one ride at the park that was most likely to take you out was Cannonball Falls. This ride was an enclosed water slide that ended with a 10 foot drop into the middle of a huge pool. I can remember once landing flat on my back and hearing every visitor watching say “Ohhhhhhh” at the same exact time when I hit the water.

The state of New Jersey would ultimately wind up shutting down that ride for good in 2014 after a spate of injuries drew the attention of park regulators. But that in itself was not nearly the scariest ride in the park. That title would have to go to it’s cousin Cannonball Loop, which I never rode on but is steeped in urban myth because this insane water slide was only open a month before it too was shut down.

The Cannonball Loop, was an enclosed water slide with a complete vertical loop. According to one urban legend I heard, they used a dummy for a test run of the ride and it came back without a head.

Gene Mulvihill offered park staff $100 to try out new rides, including the Cannonball Loop, and despite employees getting bloody noses and bruises, he went ahead and opened the attraction anyway. One person actually got stuck at the top of the loop, prompting the park to construct a hatch to facilitate future rescues.

The Advisory Board on Carnival Amusement Ride Safety shut it down just a month after it opened, after numerous injuries were reported. Mulvihill’s son confesses that they “never completely perfected that one”.

At the end of the day what made Action Park so successful was it’s “anything goes” mentality that made the water park so popular. I remember people drinking freely and kids running around the park without any adult supervision. In reality, many of the numerous injuries reported came from visitors who were inebriated.

Shut Down & Rebirth

In 1996, Action Park was shut down. But by that time, the park had been responsible for six deaths, including three drownings in the Tidal Wave Pool and the electrocution of a 27-year-old man on the Kayak Experience when his kayak fell over and he came into contact with water that had a loose wire contacting it.

Mulvihill headed a committee to reclaim the park in 2010. Mountain Creek Waterpark, which reopened in 2014 under it’s new name, now advertising a trained lifeguard team and stringent, up-to-date safety measures.

Class Action Park

Recently HBO made a documentary called Class Action Park which brought back a lot of memories. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip down memory lane but haven’t been back to the park since it reopened. Nothing will ever be able to match the crazy thrills we got on a hot summer day at Action Park. Those memories will endure for everyone that grew up during that generation.