Shocking documentary shows horrors at world's most dangerous amusement park where multiple people died
A shocking documentary shows the horrific incidents and scenes that took place at the world’s ‘most dangerous’ amusement park where multiple people faced their death.
While a young boy was decapitated by a ride at a Kansas City park, Action Park in New Jersey is also infamous for having had a number of tragedies.
Back in the summer of 2020, Class Action Park was released on HBO in the US, telling the story of the infamous water park with its wild attractions.
The documentary has a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes as viewers are horrified by what went on there – with some even reminiscing on their own visits to the spot also dubbed as ‘Traction Park’.
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Action Park was very popular in the 80s and 90 after opening in 1978 – despite the young staff reportedly having to rescue 100 swimmers from the wave pool on its very first day.
In the documentary’s trailer, an interviewee explains: “If you couldn’t swim, well, yikes.”
Class Action Park is the first-ever feature-length doc to explore the 'legend, legacy, and truth behind a place that long ago entered the realm of myth'.
Action Park was supposed to be the most 'spectacularly fun amusement park on Earth: a place where unruly 1980s teenagers were given free rein to go gonzo on strange contraptions that seemed to violate the laws of common sense (and perhaps physics)'.
But in the end, it was nothing but 'an ill-conceived death trap'.
The documentary claims there was 110 injuries in just one year - including 45 head injuries, with the availability of alcohol on-site credited with contributing to these numbers.
Class Action Park is ‘told through the eyes of kids that went there and worked there’ and is described as ‘darkly comedic’.
A large part of the park’s management team consisted of under 18s with people as young as 14 operating rides - which was against New Jersey law.
Six people are known to have died directly from rides at the park, and one of the main focuses of the film is the death of George Larsson Jr.
The 19-year-old died after riding the 2,700-foot-long Alpine Slide.
Made of concrete, fibreglass and asbestos, it saw riders sit on small sleds with a brake/accelerator stick and descend the slope.
But Larsson’s brake was broken, causing his sled to run off track.
The teen then fell into an embankment, hitting his head on a rock and ended up in a coma before dying.
It’s said that Alpine Slide was responsible for 26 head injuries between 1984 and 1985 alone.
Class Action Park has a whopping 96 percent on the Tomatometer with critics calling it ‘riveting’ and ‘easily justifies the reason for OSH worker’s existence’.
One added that ‘the wave pool had a death zone’ as another wrote: “This nostalgic trip back to the carefree summers of decades past is a hoot until you realize that people actually died here.”
Class Action Park is available to stream on NOW TV.
Topics: Documentaries, HBO, Theme Park
Jess Battison