Terrifying 'Cannonball Loop' ride at world's most dangerous amusement park where multiple people died
The world's most dangerous amusement park featured one of the most terrifying rides - something that probably won't come as much of a shock to anyone.
The ride in question caused several pretty nasty injuries, which led to it being closed multiple times. Check it out:
So, what exactly is this so-called dangerous amusement park, I hear you ask?
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Action Park was an amusement and water park located in Vernon Township, New Jersey, becoming a popular spot in the 1970s and 80s.
But Action Park soon became notorious for being 'an ill-conceived death trap'.
An eye-opening documentary unveils the horror stories at Action Park, which actually saw the deaths of six guests.
Class Action Park was released on HBO in 2020 and documents the story of the infamous park as a popular attraction throughout the 80s, despite it being unsafe from day one.
It was revealed that about 100 swimmers needed to be saved by staff - the majority of whom were underage - from the wave pool on the opening day.
The film is the first ever feature-length picture to investigate 'legend, legacy, and truth behind a place that long ago entered the realm of myth' and boasts a near perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes.
In what was meant to be the most 'spectacularly fun amusement park on earth', there were allegedly 110 injuries in the space of a year at 'Traction Park', as it had been nicknamed, with the availability of alcohol on-site credited with contributing to these numbers.
Even more appallingly, six people are known to have died directly from rides at the park.
And one of the rides was dubbed as one of the most dangerous and terrifying.
The 'Cannonball Loop' was one of the first things visitors would see when visiting the theme park, and it was described as something out of a cartoon due to its vertical loop after its steep downward slide.
Once the first slide was complete, dummies were used as test subjects and kept emerging out the other end mutilated in different ways, and some were decapitated.
This didn't stop park founder Gene Mulvihill from offering $100 to his employees, many of which were teenagers, to test it out.
Before padding was added, early testers emerged with bloody mouths.
After protection was added, the next round of testers emerged with unexplainable deep cuts, before they realised that teeth from the first testers had got stuck in the loop and were causing the damage.
In the documentary, an ex-Navy physician found that riders would experience up to nine Gs of force, similar to that experienced in a military jet.
People often came off the ride feeling disoriented, bruised and struggling to stand.
One rider even got stuck at the top of the loop, prompting the park to add a latch to save future riders.
The ride was closed and reopened several times in the 80s and 90s, though it never opened again after that.
The entire amusement park closed in 1996, was reopened in 2014 and then closed for good in 2016 after more dangerous rides continued to injure riders, such as Cannonball Falls.
Class Action Park is available to stream on NOW.
Topics: Documentaries, HBO, Theme Park, US News
Joshua Nair