Featured Image Credit: HBO
Topics: Documentaries, Theme Park, HBO
Brenna Cooper
There is no theme park more notorious than Action Park in America, a place which led to six known deaths before its eventual closure.
"There's nothing in the world like Action Park," declared a 1980s commercial for the attraction, a phrase which takes on a chilling new meaning when you consider the number of incidents which happened during its years in operation.
Originally opening its doors in the 1970s, New Jersey's Action Park offered thrill seekers a combination of rides and a waterpark and would go on to be a hugely popular attraction before its eventual closure.
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The story of Action Park was later revisited in HBO's 2020 documentary Class Action Park, which argued that poor safety led to the deaths and injuries of visitors.
Watch the trailer below:
The documentary would claim that on the park's opening day inexperienced staff members had to rescue 100 swimmers from the wave pool on its very first day, while another claim stated that 110 injuries occurred in the park in just one year - including 45 head injuries.
One of the most notorious attractions was the park's 2,700-foot-long Alpine Slide.
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Constructed from a combination of concrete, fibreglass and asbestos, the slide would see punters sent down the track in small sleds equipped with just a small brake.
The sleds were said to have just two settings, 'extremely slow' and 'death awaits', with a YouTube deep dive into the slide also adding that riders supposedly weren't dressed properly or warned about the risk of a sled coming off the track.
Tragically the slide would claim the life of 19-year-old George Larsson Jr, a case which features heavily in the HBO documentary. The teenager would visit the park in 1980 and suffer a devastating head injury after his sled jumped the tack due to a faulty brake.
Larsson would be ejected from his fall before falling into the embankment, hitting his head on a rock and ended up in a coma before dying.
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The slide also featured a chilling warning which greeted prospective riders, telling them a release form must be signed before stepping onto the attraction, which certainly isn't the most reassuring of messages you want to see at theme park.
"If you don't sign the release form you can NOT ride the Alpine side," the message states. "Parents must side for their kids."
The message also stated that children under 10 were not allowed on the slide and that racing was forbidden.
Action Park would close its doors in 1996, before a brief revival between 2014 until 2016.
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The site now hosts Mountain Creek Waterpark, which features increased safety measures.