Inside 'notorious' Action Park which recorded six deaths but stayed open for 28 years
A theme park in New Jersey became one of the most feared attractions in the world due to the terrifying number of injuries and deaths that occurred within just a few years.
According to many who visited throughout the 80s, Action Park, also known as Class Action Park or 'Traction Park' due to its number of legal cases filed against it, it was an experience to remember.
While some are said to have worn their cuts and bruises like a badge of honour, having lived to tell the tale, others were left scarred - physically and mentally - or even lost their lives in the process.
The first death in the park's history came just one year after it opened, when park employee of the neighbouring ski resort, George Larsson Jr. was involved in an horrifying incident.
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He was just 19 years old when he visited the theme park with friends on 8 July, 1980.
George was riding the 2,700-ft. Alpine Slide, which saw riders sit on a small cart and navigate a concrete track via the acceleration and brake features.
It was on that very ride that George came off the track, flipped in his cart and landed on the rocks below.
George was rushed to hospital but sadly died of his injuries eight days later, and days before he was supposed to be the best man to his brother Brian at his wedding.
"I didn't think it was any big deal because he was so athletic," his mum Esther recalled in the HBO documentary Class Action Park. "I thought scrapes or bumps or something, maybe a cut, but I had no idea how awful it was.
"When we got to that hospital, he had been moved to another hospital. I saw the bed that he had been in, and there was blood, all over the pillowcase, all over everything."
Following his death, Esher, so distraught at losing a son, walked in front of a truck.
She says in the film: "At that point, my husband pulled me back, and he just screamed at me, 'What were you thinking?' I was thinking I couldn't live with that kind of pain. It just, it hurt so much. And here, 39 years later, I can still feel that pain."
Two years later, another tragedy hit the infamous park when 15-year-old George Lopez would also die at the park after drowning in the Tidal Wave Pool.
According to the late park owner's son, Andrew Mulvihill, lifeguards had rescued around 100 people from the pool.
In the years following, two more died there, and it was given the nickname Grave Pool.
Two weeks after George drowned, another death took place, which saw a 27-year-old fall out of the Kayak Experience water ride, step on exposed wiring and was then electrocuted.
All deaths at Action Park:
- 1980: George Larsson, Jr. (19), on the Alpine Slide (head injury)
- 1982: George Lopez, (15), in the Tidal Wave Pool (drowning)
- 1982: Jeffrey Nathan (27), on the Kayak Experience (electrocution)
- 1984: An unnamed visitor, on the Tarzan Swing (heart attack)
- 1984: Donald DePass (20), in the Tidal Wave Pool (drowning)
- 1987: Gregory Grandchamps (18), in the Tidal Wave Pool (drowning)
The New York Times reported at the time: “Two other persons on the ride were injured, also apparently from electric shock.”
Because of its legacy and the number of accidents that occurred before it was sold in 1996 and reopened as Mountain Creek Waterpark, HBO released a look into the park in 2020.
However, in a statement to TODAY, Mulvihill claimed it was 'full of inaccuracies.'
"If you want the real story of what happened read my book ... and ask the millions of customers who loved the place and came back summer after summer for 20 years. They are the true unbiased judges."
Action Park recorded 110 injuries in 1985 alone, which included 45 head injuries and 10 fractures, according to the New Jersey Herald.
One year later, there were reportedly 330 injuries, according to the newspaper's figures.
Britt Jones