The Story of Action Park | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2020
- "On the 26th of May, 1978, a new attraction opened in the township of Vernon, New Jersey. For the next 20 years this unassuming US town would be the home to Action Park..."
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“Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”
- Action Park owner
Who is Lord Farquad?
@@JVCNKIDZ my sugar daddy
Lord farquad is that you
"I'll get a thousand guests killed before I let my company die!"
The Alpine slide was made of concrete, fiberglass and asbestos🤣🤣🤣what’s the worst that could happen😂😂😂
When I was 11 in 1983 I fractured my big toe on the Tarzan swing as I landed on a hard concrete area on the side of the pool. I remembered being "treated" in the "first aid" station by a college kid wearing an AC/DC tee shirt.
🎶”Concrete shoes, cyanide....TARZAN SWING!!”🎶
Damn sorry to hear that I hope you're ok now
Oh I’m sorry about your toe at least your lifeguard had taste😛
LOL
Where were your parents?
I remember Johnny Knoxville talking about how fun but unsafe this place was in a documentary or interview. You know a place is batshit crazy when Jackass tells you it’s dangerous!
Pretty sure they made a movie about it with him playing the owner
@@coltburks5450 you're right. Didn't realize until now it was based off this
Damn 😳😂
Lmao maybe that’s how he got inspired for jackass
Huh. Maybe action park is why I enjoy jackass so much.
I appreciate that just like any other video about a specific disaster, he starts with the date. This implies that the mere opening of the park was the disaster in question.
Before I ruined the count by liking your comment, the number of likes it had was 113 - which also happens to be the emergency phone number to the ambulance here in Norway. A silly, entirely irrelevant thing, but after watching this particular video, and then your comment stating that the opening of the park was the real disaster, it just made me giggle!!!!!
There are more of these
"Made of concrete, fiberglass, and asbestos." I don't think I've ever heard of a scarier combination of materials.
Thousands of people could be suffering from breathing in this asbestos. This takes years to show
Water, metal grate, and exposed wires, is much scarier.
Sugar, spice, and everything nice. Most dangerous combination ever. That stuff will ruin you.
Geez what a bunch of wimps. Granted a steep concrete slide doesn’t sound all that fun to me for the apparent risk involved, but what’s the panic about the materials?
Concrete? Ever seen a sidewalk? Wouldn’t want to faceplant on one, but does that make it “scary?”
Fiberglass? Ooh, how scary. Guess your tentpoles, fishing rods and ladders are just ticking timebombs right?
Oh, and the big one: asbestos! That one is such a lethal deathtrap that we used it for tons of stuff for over a hundred years at least. Wouldn’t you think something so scarily lethal would have made people notice how dangerous it was a bit quicker?
“Hey George, ever notice how everybody with transite siding on their house dies a year after moving in?” “Uh, no, can’t say that I have...”
I don’t know the statistics, but I’m pretty sure this stuff doesn’t kill or even cause cancer in some huge percentage of people around it. You have to work around it in a job where it’s floating around in the air for years to have any reasonable chance of being harmed by it. The people who demolished the concrete slides might have needed to worry, but just rolling over it in the open air when it was set in concrete probably presented miniscule risk compared to the risk of crashing your cart somehow....
In other words yeah, the activity looks fairly risky, but whether the slide was made out of wood or clay or concrete with no asbestos wouldn’t make it any less scary to someone who can evaluate risk rationally.
@@phthartic in all fairness asbestos when it's whole and complete is harmless, it's it's you crush or damage it that is the problem
"They can't sue us if they're dead" - Action Park, probably
Their families: _Allow us to introduce ourselves._
@@Michijoy
The neighbors who join them: #2 ⬆
Seems a bit accurate 😅
Lawyers: You weren't supposed to say that!!!!
@The One, The Only, The Official Mr. Troll Face omg who hurt u
As a Child of the 80s it AMAZES Me that ANY OF US LIVED LONG ENOUGH TO PROCREATE
Even so, at least it's the 1980s and not the 1880s 😬 Yikes!
You 80’s kids are so special 🫠 90’s all the way
What are you talking about? We were the last generation to have a real childhood. It was great. I wish I could go back.
@@lilyw.719 I wish I could go back, too
Lol
I am a survivor of Action Park. Major head injury and had to be taken to the local hospital. Two other people were also taken there during my hospitalization
Those shirts saying "I survived [tourist attraction]" aren't meant to be taken literally
except in the case of Action Park
Meaning you might or might not have survived. I bought a t shirt that said "[ survived Black Bear Pass." But that actually was a near thing.....
Mine says “I survived the road to Negril”and if you’ve ever ridden a motorcycle from Montego Bay to Negril you’ll take it literally!
The workers called it 'traction park".
ROTFLABO!!!!! 😂
Action park: I'm pretty sure your kids head was missing BEFORE they entered the park.
My grandpa did maintenance and saftey at Disney Land in California for 20 years and one time some dummy thought it would be cool to block the saftey bar on Space Mountain...guess he never thought about hoe those lights that look like stars are staying there in mid air...he stood up and a beam took his head clean off, my grandpa and some other guys had to go down to the bottom later and recover it. Alot of crazy stuff happens at Disney.
@@whatabouttheearth Some peoples stupidity amazes me. There's rules and guidelines for a reason, and I hope your grandpa was okay after that
Space mountain was such an awesome ride......... And now i know those *stars* are actual light beam hanging 😬
@@whatabouttheearth as took his head clean of you mean as he got his head chopped off
@@whatabouttheearth or you mean another way because i dont get ir
I still have scars from the Alpine Slides. The whole park was absolute madness, you didn’t get in trouble if you went off the track with the carts, or if you slammed into someone else, or did an insane daring-do off of the rope swing. When you came into the park, there were always ambulances at the entrance. Kids not much older than me were running things, and you could smell the pot smoke coming out of the employee shacks. I have to say, I do remember it with great fondness, but I was a kid, so what the hell did I know about safety? I was lucky that I wasn’t ever hurt badly, but this should never be repeated again. As a parent now, I’m horrified, because Frontal Lobes and the ability to consider consequences.
I just don't understand how ambulances at the entrance wouldn't turn more people away 😕. I mean you were a kid at the time so I see how you might not have thought much of it, but the adults? Why wouldn't they be scared for their kid's safety at a place that needed ambulances on standby and just say, "Nope. We're going somewhere else."
Do as I say,not as I did. Hypocrite.
Those frontal lobes can be real fun killers, can they not.
@@supertuber120 You have to understand what Boomer parents were like. They would literally throw you out of the house in the early morning, and expect not to see you until the streetlights came on. They probably saw the ambulances and assumed they were there 'just in case'. Hell, most of the grown ups there were drunk at the Beer Hall, and were driving the go-karts drunk as Lords.
@@vasiliyshukshin7466 I'm amazed that mine still work, to be honest. I would be horror-struck if my kids ever tried 1/4 of the stunts I pulled off at Class Action Park.
I dated the daughter of a "safety investigator" Action Park had on staff, in 1982-1983. He has some amazing stories! One evening when I arrived at her house, he came to the door with his knees and elbows are skinned from testing the Alpine Slide. It was a wild amusement park - as crazy dangerous as this video says.
Went five straight summers. There is no exaggeration in this video. I don’t know how I survived. Great times.
I love how you still say great times 😂😂
"I went. It was dangerous. I almost died. It was awesome."
We lose people every year on rivers and lakes 🤷♂️
I went 3 summers is a row. One of the slides was a waterboarding simulation. Such funny and good times getting rekt there
@@jayfender4486 Rivers and lakes are very different from whats supposed to be a controlled and safe experience
"This swinging rope is great, but what it really needs is a concrete wall opposite of it." - Action Park employee, probably.
If not, there is no action :)
😂😂😂
Also use actual mountain water that was always 30° colder than the air. It was quite Refreshing!
They got the idea from watching a Roadrunner cartoon.
They got the idea from watching a Roadrunner cartoon.
I'm 60 yrs old now but when I was a teenager, my friends and I went to Action Park during the summer break from school. One year, I rode the Alpine Slide and on a deep slope in the ride, the cart got away from me after going through a steep turn and and I slide about 50 feet on my elbows and knees down the cement track. I got severe burns to my elbows and knees and had to go to the on-sight medical building. They actually wanted to charge me for the medical service when it was their ride that caused the injuries I sustained.
Surviving childhood as a kid in the 70's was a badge of honor. I grew up in Florida and the insane things we did were endless. We had a local water park built in our neighborhood and we took advantage of the chance to skateboard the slides before it was officially opened. It was a thirty foot death drop if you didn't stay in the slide. But, we tore that place up!!
Dude!! What a memory! Wish i was there pal, I would have shredded a slide lol
@@nustde00 I skated into my 50's. Until I nearby folded my knee backwards in our local bowl. First time skating ever really hurt me.
The good ol days😄😄😄
😳😳😳😬😬😬what the hell. Pure insanity.
Same here. I was a 70s child / 80s teen. Surviving childhood then, did deserve a badge. Like being allowed to play at the local park, unattended, at age five. (yes, five) Being allowed to cross the street by myself, at age five. (yes, five)
Explains why I cut my left hand open climbing a fence, requiring eight stitches to fix. Also explains why I was struck by a car crossing that same street. In hindsight, my parents were really stupid. My five year old, certainly won't be crossing streets, or playing in a park alone. Then, there was riding our bikes, all over our area of the city, or walking to the mall to hang out, by age eight. Stuff you can't let your kids do anymore. At least these days, most people are aware of all the danger of living in most societies. Good luck out there kids. You'll need it.
I love how this one wasn't showing a single catastrophic disaster but was like, "Look at this shitshow." lol
A very loveable shit show
This park sounds like its awesomeness far outweighed its horror.
I don't think the narrator understands how cool this place was, thousands and thousand of people must have visited, with what sounds like a very, very small amount of deaths.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂✌⚡
@@DavidB-rx3km That wasn't the point. The thing that ended AP was the lawsuits. Cost a lot to hire lawyers for that sort of thing. Then the insurance rates must have grown incredibly high after the lawsuits. Then maintenance, employees and the owners are of course, going to leave with their millions.
Most people just look at business, especially one that big, as entertainment and what they want. That's how the rich stay rich. Business, business, money, money. Do we really know how many lawsuits AP had to fight. We are on the outside looking in.
Probably had lawyers standing at the exits handing out their business cards.
The park got the nickname "Class Action Park."
🤣
He owned the insurance company it's headquarters was over seas don't know why that was left out and Vernon made him buy ambulances and pay the volunteers who were stationed there on the weekends
@Winahh Taylahh no it’s legit I’ve been there before lmao honestly a pretty fun park tho
@@alex26361 hell it was probably a blast if you didn't get injured your driving a cart at 50 mph and big wave pools sounds awesome, but dangerous
I can't stop laughing at these designs. Like an 8 year old playing roller coaster tycoon.
The scariest thing about cannonball loop is that they sent a crash dummy down the slide and it came out without its head
The owner of Action Park was pretty much playing Rollercoaster Tycoon in real life
We need more people like him to deliver good times to the world
Bubbl3gum_ Bunny
As a person who’s made a ride in rollercoaster tycoon that sends you head first into the ground, yeah
Or Theme Park, when you make the rides too fast and people fall off and die, but people still go to the theme park despite the high death toll. XD
I bout fell out laughing at this comment.
Lmao
I nearly drowned in a wave pool in Germany when I was 16 and trapped in the deep end. I remember flailing my arms around like windmills trying to get the attention of a lifeguard and screaming for my life while trying not to go under as my elderly aunt and uncle laughed and waved at me thinking I was having fun. Fucking nightmare memory still and I am now 60 years old.
Ive been there. For me it was the "sun life center" in Wales 94.
I guess in some way we are all veterans of terror.
You guys have cheated death. No wonder it's been going after other amusement park victims!!
Oh man, I relate to this!! Has happened a few times. Sadistic family members I swear.
What water park was it?
Oh god, this reminds me of when I was 9 and choking on an ice lolly. I must have been turning blue, but my friends were just laughing at me. I literally wanted to die just so they would feel the guilt that they didn't help me. Gives me the chills just thinking about it
I went there in maybe 1982, at age 7ish. My mom and I were in the ski lift/sky ride which went directly over a road (without any seat belts or safety measures, of course). Then it got stuck. My poor mom was so terrified, but she kept it together so I wouldn't freak out. I remember looking at those water slides, but was told they were for adults. And the alpine slide fascinated me, but again i was really too little to be doing that ride either. Sounds like my mom was wise to be so prudent.
One of the first things I did when I got internet was research amusement park ride safety, and show my kids the facts. One of the dumbest things I hear ppl say is "They wouldn't sell it if it wasn't good for you" Don't trust "they" and check things out for yourself.
I grew up going to Action Park often. It was indeed dangerous but that became a big part of the appeal for many of us who made it out of those rides safely. It became a twisted right of passage. Much of the park is still there and running. To correct the video, many of the original scary rides are still there. Such as the Tarzan drop and the waterfall jump. The terrain is still notoriously steep and slippery. It’s at Mountain Creek Resort.
*rite
@@eustab.anas-mann9510 For all intensive porpoises, it means the same thing. Dont be such a Pre-Madonna. Enjoy you meal and Bone-Apple Tea.
@@ilikemitchhedberg😂
@@ilikemitchhedberg - 🥂🤣🤣🤣
It’s disgusting there’s no danger allowed today in anything. It’s why you can be basically certain nothing you can do at these amusement parks will be any fun.
Frankly in listening to this, I'm surprised only 6 people died in that entire time.
I was shocked also. I was expecting a much higher number.
Same.
They think that a lot more died, but it was covered up because the park could lie and say they were an employee, there's a great documentary about it on HBO, "Class Action Park". One guy that died from being thrown off the Alpine Slide, he had formerly worked there , so they didn't claim his death as a customer dying.
@@CatgirLinKC The Documentary on HBO literally states 4 people died and how they died.
Sorry, but you dont "cover-up" deaths at a public park, I swear to G** people dont think before they type.
@@dezznutz3743 ok, I see a pattern of defending Action Park's death rate in other posts, so I am wondering if you are an investor or the son of the former owner?
In any matter, in reference to your condescending comment above,
Wikipedia page, look under "Fatalities" tab...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Park
Quote: July 8, 1980: A 19-year-old man was riding the Alpine Slide when his car jumped the track and his head struck a rock, killing him. Gene Mulvihill told reporters that the man was an employee because if he was an employee then he wouldn't have to report his death to the state. The man worked at the park as a ski lift operator the prior season; he never worked at Action Park. -- end quote
.... so, because he worked at the ski lift for Mr Mulvihill the previous season, they fudged their reporting to the state and said he had been an employee.
I like when people talk about Action Park and are like "yeah I broke my arm 7 times and my cousin got decapitated but other than that it was my favorite summer ever"
😅
I remember my favorite summer there when on the water slide I got my weiner cut off and became possessed by a demon after visiting the haunted house.
@@brianhill7905 To be fair, that was advertised in the brochure with every visit.
😂
@@brianhill7905 you too!!!
OMG! We used to go here all the time when i was a kid. My mom went flying over the edge of the slide one time and got a huge gash. We would always see someone getting taken off the mountain on a stretcher. But really, we thought it was the funnest place ever and it never stopped us from going. Guess that’s how it was in the 70’s and 80’s when we weren’t even using seat belts in cars.
And right here is a prime example of survivor bias
@@jalapeno1119 wdym?
@@jalapeno1119 Yes. It’s a survivor bias. It’s their comment and how they felt. Despite seeing people getting taken off a mountain on a stretcher. They thought it was still fun. That’s their opinion.
It seems to have been very popular - so obviously many people loved it.
We always used seatbelts in the 80s, or at least I did! I was a safety conscious kid. : ) I wouldn't have gone on most of these rides. haha
I was in my late 20’s when I visited AP. To be perfectly honest, I LOVED IT! I remember the race track, speed boats, Alpine slide and the rolling rapids. I felt like a teenager again! However, I then went on the new Bungee Jump tower! Back in those days, I weighed about 270. You had to weigh in before climbing the tower. They would weigh you and print out a ticket showing your weight which would then get attached to a harness that you had to wear. I was 40lbs over the 230 limit. When I was getting weighed, I was told by the person weighing me to pull myself up on the doorway header that was directly my head. By doing so, I was able to get my weight down to below 230. He printed the ticket and up I went. I believe it was 100 drop and they had very large air bags on the ground for just in case. I went up and after getting attached to the bungee, I jumped. Feet first. Good thing I did so. Because when the bungee had fully stretched out my feet literally hit the air bags. I was fine. But I noticed that many people had jumped head first! Had I opted to do that, I very easily could end up breaking my neck. If I recall, during that summer, there were a couple of deaths on that “attraction” alone! AP was forced to close the Bungee Jump and like 2 or 3 years later, they were shut down for good. But, I still loved that day! Always will!
Jesus that’s terrifying
You probably recall incorrectly. Nothing online says there were a "couple" of deaths from their bungee jump. Sure injuries aren't well documented but the actual fatalities at the park are. Everything i have read says 6 people died in the park during its operation. The 6 mentioned in the video.
I do find it hilarious that the jump was called (and presumably sponsored by) the Snapple Snap-Up Whipper Snapper Ride.
@@terrencej-smith5522 maybe I do. I do remember the park being shut down at least twice due to deaths. This was before the internet (at least I didn’t have it at that time) and cell phones. So I received the info from word of mouth. The park was extremely unsafe, however I remember having a blast!
Zero deaths on the bungee rides. Worst injury was a broken ankle which occurred when a jumper slid off the airbag while being lowered and landed with one foot sideways. Thrilling ride, but one of the safest at Action Park.
Loud speaker as you enter park:
"May the odds be ever in your favor"
This is a resonatingly funny comment.
Lmaooo
Underrated comment. This comment section is full of wee nuggets of gold!
“Let the games begin”
Good luck everyone!
"The Gang Builds A Water Park"
I see what you did there. If they were in charge, it would have been much worse, lol.
Ya this has Charlie work written all over it
Literally laughed out loud
half way though I was thinking that this sounds like something created by Frank Reynolds
@@mytxmygun6300 particularly the rides
As a survivor of the wave pool at age 8, I can tell you that this pool was insane. If a 16 yr old park worker/lifeguard hadn’t seen me out of the corner of his eye I would have drown under one of hundreds of rafts allowed in the pool. My brother also was injured on the alpine slide and rope lake. At the time we were young and having so much fun we didn’t realize the lack of adults running this park. Everyone was either drunk or high as a kite. Needless to say, those days are over and now kids can’t even play on a swing set without cedar shavings underneath them. I guess the rest of us grew up pretty tough
So a 16 year old employee saved your life and your calling him or her out for being too young or high?
@@boataxe4605 Just b/c one of them managed to do their job, doesn't mean the intoxication of underage employees wasn't a problem. I nearly died in the wave pool twice. Others died there. Yeah, I'd say that intoxication was part of the problem.
I went there as a kid when it had already changed names to Mountain Creek. They still had the Tarzan Swings. I was initially scared to go on it, but ended doing it due to peer pressure.
To this day it is the single scariest ride I ever experienced. That terrifying feeling of dropping into a deep, ice cold pool completely disoriented and nearly drowning will never leave my memory.
Cherish it, man.
These are the memories you'll tell your grand kids, one day.
@@gedofgont1006 Yups that is very true!
@@gedofgont1006ah yes the lovely stories of trauma spilling to grand kids
This one is my favorite because it is so wildly negligent that the entire park sounds like one of those fictional corporate entities in the Fallout universe.
Yeah I expected the guy that owned it to look like Cave Johnson.
🎵Come on down to Nuka World and see it for yourself, a vacation that refreshes, a trip you won't forget, a park with every minimum safety standards met🎵
You should check out Class Action Park, a full length documentary about this park. It's on HBO.
Yeah that's capitalism for you
@@upland77
You clearly need to take econ classes. You don't understand the concept of capitalism vs. public safety regulations.
“Safety? You fucking figure it out”
"Just don't get hurt, dumb-ass" - Action Park safety marshal, probably.
@@skylined5534 says Red from That 70's Show lol
@@skylined5534 omg haha 😂😂
"Safety?........HaHaHAhA!!!....Hey, Vinnie, dis guy here is askin 'bout safety?......I got ya safety right here.....Keep the line movin"
This is New Jersey we are talkin about, LOL.
This is honestly based, I would love to go therw
The rides have an “Aperture Science” vibe to them. We used a few test subjects, some survived, so we deemed it safe for the public to enjoy!
My cousins and their friends wore their Action Park wounds like a red badge of courage. My cousin scraped his entire right forearm on the Alpine slide and my other cousin cut his face on a water slide. Those of us not wounded, though glad, felt lesser for not. 😆😆
My parents always said the 80's were wild and lawless. But go karts that dont require a helmet to ride and go 80km/h, that's some real wild shit.
Yeah, the 80s were awesome in most ways. We just did stuff without mommy having to put a helmet on us or coddle us.
Im pretty sure a water slide with a complete rollar coaster type of loop is crazy! You would shoot up into it feet first and head down, thats nuts
Ya some carts had a loose strap they would hook over your neck and one arm just so you wouldn't fly out I guess.
@@v-town1980 I mean, putting a helmet on when you’re going 50mph seems less like coddling and more like good sense. Just like a motorcycle, if I saw someone going at those speeds in an open air vehicle I’d assume they’re just tempting fate.
I think the point of this video is that many people didn’t survive!
fiber glass, concrete, asbestos
name a more iconic trio, I'll wait 💅🏾💅🏾
Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. Do I win?
Beyoncé, Kelly and Michelle 😅
@@marysunrise7575 don't lie you know Michelle and Concrete have the same personality 😭😭😭
@@cherubcherub1698 oh my god you did not just
Those should be names for an eyeshadow palette tbh.
I was shocked to discover in this video (which showed up in my recommended) that Action Park is now Mountains Creek, a water park I visited 7 years ago. Holy shit. The feeling of knowing I was at the grounds of the notorious Action Park is so surreal.
Right! I lived in Jersey in the 00's and all the pictures were reminding me of this waterpark I went to as a kid. When he said Mountain Creek I gasped. I guess I can tell people I have a scar from Action Park since I scraped my arm on a nail and wouldn't stop picking at the scab.
My brothers, uncle and I used to go in the 80s and my brother Jon and I did the vertical loop which was insane. At the top it sounded like a gun going off when a person went down the tube towards the loop. We only did it once due to how scary it was. Also the 112’ waterside near the top of the park was insane. Basically had a turnstile to allow just the person without a car or mat to go over the edge which was so steep that there was a thick plastic like material where some people left the slide completely and you’d see a silhouette of peoples faces near the top of the slide. This was there to keep people from falling out of control. Dropping 112’ you pick up some crazy speed and my bathing trunks were up into my chest area practically from the force of the water at the bottom. My brother Steve jumped off the cliffs there with legs open when hitting the water. Dude was signing a high note after that!
"once a few employees survived the experience it was declared safe" incredible
So glad Disneyland was never managed like that.
@@luisferr2001 Disney is worse. Much worse. You have no idea
@@skychieftain Are you sure about that?
@@kittykittybangbang9367 yes
Thats what they ment with trial and error
Dude didn't even mention how they employed underage, untrained and often times high on drugs college kids to serve alcohol to patrons, act as life guards and first aid responders.
That's what that documentary on HBO Max is for.
They still do that have you seen the life guards 120 pounds wet no muscle about 5ft 6 how the fuck is he going to save a 300 pound man from drowning.
Stoned kids dishing out alcohol. I like this place even more!
Yep were crazy an not local employees Vernon had very little weed or any drugs back then they started bussing in staff from Newark an that caused major problems with staffing an any type of good employees
That sounds like an awesome place to work!
I used to love Action Park, especially the Alpine Slide, but I do remember thinking even as a risk-taking teenager that these rides can't be safe!
Being an ‘80s kid, this brings back so many memories and nostalgia. I never went to Adventure Park, but that would have been a place I would have frequented regularly if I lived near there.
Guess you have brain damage.
Ah yes, asbestos poisoning, concussions, broken bones and drownings arouses the sweetest nostalgia, doesn’t it.
Busch beer garden.oarnge countys poor bastard of Disney land. Think the Griswold familys second hand choice after a long adventure trek from suburban Chicagoland to fucking southern California.
Heck the beer was cheap.and I being a kid wasn't even carded by the "security " guard.
"once employees had survived a ride it would be deemed safe".
amazing hahaha wtf
My brother in law is a ride safety and maintenance engineer for one of the UK's biggest theme parks that has old wooden roller coasters they physically walk each day to do a visual inspection of the tracks before sending an empty train around. The rule is whoever checks and signs off the rides as safe has to be first on them which is fair shout. Just before opening the gates you can see just two guys hurtling around on roller-coasters but because they've ridden it literally hundreds of times they look like they could be drinking coffee and reading a newspaper. Just "Meh" but at least you know they're pretty sure those rides are safe.
@Heidi Thomas I think it was the users responsibility for the most part but to get electrified or get an unexpected high speed modified car is unexceptable!
Everything I know of the car is from the video so I might be wrong.
Mann.Co Approved
I worked for an amusement park that used to have the same policy
D-Class personel on the SCP Foundation be like:
"Safety tested mainly by trial and error."
This sentence shouldn't even exist.
If enough of the employees survived testing the ride would be allowed.
@@That_Awesome_Guy1 It's like the park was built by Jeff Bezos.
And I'm glad that it does.
Hi, Jack!
Sounds like the Covid vaccines.
My cousin and I went to Action Park back in the mid to late 80's and it was a blast. I don't remember the rope swing, but think I remember a place where you could jump off a ledge into the pool below. I mainly loved the Alpine Slides and this tube ride where a million kids were going down and you would get clogged up every once in a while due to everyone being around you so you'd have to get up and walk or throw the tube a bit and jump back in. Never really remember seeing carnage at the place, but I do have a pretty vivid memory of seeing alpine slide sleds thrown into the area outside of the track and I remember riding up on the ski lift thinking that I'd hate to be those people that were on them. The interesting part is that I never heard about any deaths or people getting hurt there.........maybe some road rash from the Alpine Slides or whatever bruise or scrape from whatever else, but back then we got outside so those things were happening whether you were at Action Park or not so nobody is going to blink an eye over that kinda thing back then. Bad reputation or not......I loved the times when my cousin and I would go to this place and I'm glad we did.
The owner's son wrote a book about the park. A lot of behind the scenes stuff, and talks about how chaotic it was
The book is great. It has a lot of details - highly recommended.
Just ordered it ...thanks for the recommendation. Reading the preview pages, it sounds very interesting. A book worth sharing I'm sure😊
Name of the book please?
@@mph1ish it is called action park by Andy mulvihill
@@Taylorwintz Thank you.
"The rides were fixed mostly by trial and error."
"Welp... the dummy came out with the head ripped off again."
"Fuck. Ok, let's try something else."
He probably just wasn't going fast enough.
"I don't think it's very respectful to keep referring to Jason as 'the dummy', Mr. Mulvihill. He was just looking for that cash incentive."
"You're right. I'm sorry. But we still need to try something else. Find me another dummy."
Khaki I like your pfp c:
Action Park: Hey how many times did the dummy make it this time?
Ride mechanic: 4
Action Park: close enough
Kinda like the fiery fist o'pain!🤣
This sounds just like the parks I used to make in Roller Coaster Tycoon as a kid
I feel this so fucking much
At least nobody was literally deleting the ride while you were on it though.
Murderer!
What The Haefman said. Makes me want to steal my son’s Switch tonight.
@@user-pt1cz4ot1e Do it. :p
The main thing I'm taking from this is that you really shouldn't trust the average person to not put themselves or others in danger for an adrenaline rush. Besides complete disregards for safety from the people running the park, most of these injuries seem to have been caused by trusting people not to be stupid. Let me tell you something: People, in general, are incredibly stupid. Just when you think you've designed something that's completely idiot proof, someone goes and makes a better idiot.
Fun police... Ride at your own risk, I say.
No, really, I didn't know anything about the risks when I went when I was 12 and 16 years old. There was no internet, or smartphones or anything. There were tv commercials and I begged my mom to go ever since I was 7. I don't think most people knew about the risks. We assumed if the government let something take place or be sold, then it had to be safe. Had to make many assumptions pre-internet. There was just no way to know except by word of mouth. It was the innocence and ignorance of the time.
That guy really said “kids these days aren’t getting exposed to horrific and dangerous conditions anymore”
I believe the reason so many people look back fondly on Action Park is due to copious head injuries from the rides.
We're also talking about the 70s and 80s. Doesn't take head injuries to explain memories being kinda 'soft focus'.
My bet is that not a lot of people got injured proportionally wise. Just a few every week or day most people wouldnt notice. And I guess the danger made the things a little bit more enjoyable and memorable... if everything went right that is.
@@travian821 Yeah, that is most likely the reason why. I was just making a joke before.
@@travian821 I mean, enough folks were getting injured it got the nicknames “Traction Park” and “Class Action Park”, so I imagine it wasn’t a small proportion.
It was well known it was risky; one can only imagine how much more we’d know if this was happening in now in the social media age.
I drowned once or twice at the water park. And I'm fine
I went to Action Park about 10 times when I was a kid. I was always too scared to do anything besides the inner tube lazy river thing. People would be walking around with open wounds, giant abrasions, bloody noses. All I would do when I was there was watch people get hurt.
Dang. The lazy river is always a good choice IMO.
Along with those war wounds everyone watched those kids .. felt bad.. and talked about it with friends on our way to the Tarzan Jump and the huge toilet bowl that they installed.
@@L8dyAriel I distinctly remember watching people go on the Tarzan swing and expecting to see someone die.
@Darlene Her When someone goes to an amusement park, they are expecting to have fun, not wind up in the hospital.
so not only are people getting hurt, they're risking nasty infections by staying at the park. we all know waterparks are disgusting. glad you're okay
When I was four, my parents signed me up for a kid's summer day camp. It being summer, the camp often featured trips to the city water park. I couldn't swim, which my parents had told the camp instructors. As a result, I and the other kids who couldn't swim were supposed to stay in the splash park area. While I remember having fun there, I (being so young) wanted to do what the big kids were doing. Said big kids were all going on the water slide. I decided after my third trip to the park that I was going to go down it. I did not know that the slide let out right into the deepest area of the pool. No one told me this, assuming that I could swim. No lifeguards asked if my parents/guardians were nearby, none of them asked if I was a swimmer (even a strong one), and they thought I'd be able to read the safety signs by myself (I wouldn't learn how to read for another year). Anyway, I went down and immediately found myself in huge trouble. I started panicking the second I found myself underwater, which of course made me sink faster. I was saved by one of the camp counselors, who dove in and pulled me out the second she realized that the lifeguards hadn't seen me in trouble. I was pulled out before I could actually drown, but I developed aquaphobia for the next six years (I'm fine now). I don't know if the lifeguards got chewed out for that, but I was excused from pool trips after that, and I've never been back to that water park (if it's still there). It still scares me sometimes to think of what might have happened if the counselor hadn't seen me in time...
Someone I know who's older told me him and his friends would get drunk, smoke weed, and take PCP and drive over to Action Park and go on those unsafe attractions. Obviously they got injured a bunch of times but never reported it. Shit was fucking crazy back in the day
'the slide was made of concrete, fiber glass, and asbestos'
Sounds like my secondary school 🤷♀️
They're both Hell on Earth
👍👍👍😂😂😂
I think my school had radon in the cafeteria...
@@TugIronChief They still have some in New England, all look exactly the same as the one in this video. I've been on a few. Almost every time I have gone, someone flips over coming out of a turn or crashes into someone in front of them, or the like. Happened to me once lol, came out of a turn too quick and flew off the track. Got some nice friction burn sliding down the edge of the track before I fell off and had to chase my cart down the track.
According to the GPS tracking, some of us were hitting speeds of 20+ MPH down the track at the fast points. Not sure how accurate, but I believe it.
Funnily enough my old primary school was torn down and rebuilt due to copious amounts of asbestos used in its construction.
As a kid growing up in NJ during the 80s and 90, Action Park was indeed talked about in excited whispers and hushed tones. I remember vaguely going there once with my parents but it’s all a blur. Probably from a head injury.
Haha. Funny not funny. Sadly its prob true.
Lol good comment! Would have been great without that last explanation sentence. Just leave it with "vaguely remember" or it's "all a blur" and its friggin hilarious haha
🤣
@@mhzprayer Huh? You are wrong. The last sentence is what makes it funny.
Sorry, but I friggin lolled at the last sentence. Gold.
Went there a few years ago, it was great. There is something to be said about the parks built in the 70's and 80's. They were built on hillsides and shaded with many trees. The concrete free form slides that flowed with the natural hillside are so much more fun than the cookie cutter parks of today.
Water World just north of Denver 🤘
Yeah, who cares if a few kids die and hundreds are injured badly. At least it was on some hills in the shade right? #IDIOT
Place was so much fun. Summers between college, my friends and I would go. Thankfully, we only suffered cuts from the alpine slide.
Employees at the Super Go-Karts were like: “You wanna see some _real_ speed?”
lmfaoo 😂😂
KidZ: YeeeeEEEEaaaaAAAAHHHHHH!!! 🤣
Super go karts: Tokyo drift
Kachow
My uncle told me the staff used to drive them on the road 😂
OSHA: “WHY CAN’T YOU JUST BE NORMAL FOR ONCE??????!!!?????
Action Park: *I̶̴̗̗̦͍ͨͭ̉͢͟N̰̜͉͔ͬ̽͢H̶̪͍̒ͥ͑̓U̸̫̠̰͈̕M̶̷̲̊ͥ͋͟Ȧ̶̵̗̳N̰̜͉͔ͬ̽͢E̸̖̪̱͚ͨ̀͜ S̵̶̮̬͖̄͑͟C̸̣̭͖̤̒̈͊͟Ŗ̴̪̈̄͞E̸̖̪̱͚ͨ̀͜E̸̖̪̱͚ͨ̀͜C̸̣̭͖̤̒̈͊͟H̶̪͍̒ͥ͑̓I̶̴̗̗̦͍ͨͭ̉͢͟N̰̜͉͔ͬ̽͢G̛͔͇̞̹̈̀͘͘͟*
Come with meeeee, and you will beeeee, in a world of OSHA violations...
Blame it on my stupidity for not knowing but how do you do that with your text ?
@@thatmotivatedchris6749 zalgo
@@22I22 thanks for telling me the meaning
This comment is seriously underrated
This park was obviously dangerous but it also looks like more fun than any water park I've ever been to.
It was exactly that, and we had more fun than you could imagine, and EVERYBODY knew it was dangerous.
It was incredibly fun due to the risk
Ahhh the temptation calling... never mind mother's logic....whoosh away we go ..
well said...i agree 100%
Every time I hear about this place, I have to laugh; the owner really had a Mayor Vaughn “we’re not closing the beaches cause of one shark” attitude. How many dead & injured folk does it take, exactly?
6
This video omits two of the most bizarre things about Action Park: That most of its employees and guests were teenagers allowed to be drinking alcohol for most of the day, and that the park had purchased multiple ambulances to take multiple guests to the hospital every day. Absolutely insane.
Yup, this is probably the worst video on the channel. Besides that important fact this video leaves A LOT of facts out.
Not only that but they put the brewery right next to the go-kart ride. When it was after hours the employees would take the cards for a joyride down the highway. Good times. 😊
That sounds like a good time though
@@Spankmepink well thank God we have you the professional know it all to help us out! We are so lucky you're here
Sounds like the land of the free and the home of the brave.
8:00: Pro Tip: If an amusement park says that you need to sign a liability waiver to ride one of their rides, you should probably find a different amusement park.
I mean
Omg!!! Too funny! I'm waiting for that Liability waiver for Restaurants after Covid 😂😂
@@lisalee2885 I'm waiting for you to get a job instead of living if mommy and daddy's money.
@@ryanstinson6740 LOL! Ryan you are too funny 😂 I'm 56 and have lived on my own since 19. For the record my parents are deceased 😥 P.S. I have worked all through covid 👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸
Or grow some balls.
For those people who go often in water pools and Wave pools
Here is my advice
Dont Submerge yourself into the water more than you can stand stable
Especially near Crowded areas
When you go deep levels and start to float then the waves can be dangerous
it can push you down and send you into a state of panic
If you do want to go into deep water for the thrills
try to go with a partner so that you can look after each other
Be safe out there!
Stay in the area where the waves crest DO NOT GO OUT DEEP
My advice
Damn I miss this place. As a child of the 70’s and 80’s my family and I would travel from Delaware to Traction Park every summer and stay for one week. In the 90’s When I got older, friends and I would go there in the summer with cases and cases of beer and weed, get completely hammered and go totally insane on some of the rides. I remember we would shove tennis balls between the governor on the go-karts and have them going 50mph compared to the governed speed of 25. Some of my best childhood and young adult memories are from Traction Park. Wish it never closed. Went back in 2014 when it reopened, but it just wasn’t the same anymore.
Wishes it never closed? It did because people died dummy!
Jack the Ripper only managed to kill five. If he'd only known to go corporate and build a theme park...
Hahaha greatness
🤣🤣🤣
But then again it would be too much effort
This comment is evergreen, but not blocking.
😂
*People Dying*
Action Park Manager: Sounds like a *personal* problem
😂😂😂😂
Ok maybe U.S. Congress
I was shocked when I saw the water slide with loop how does that even make sense? That's terrifying.
ACTION PARK!! I love them- can’t get enough of them!!!! It’s hilarious (bad for them) that they made it here to one of my Scary Story channels!! Awesome video- fresh content & new photos & videos I haven’t seen on one of my favorite topics!!🙂🙂❤️thank you
As someone who lives close to this place, i love when people talk about it and find about about it. This place was literally a death trap run by teenagers.
i’m curious have you ever been to it??
I wonder if the abandoned place is still there if it is it’d be creepy as hell
@@rc9145 As in the video, it wasn't abandoned. Purchased, made safe, reopened. Still operating today as Mountain Creek Waterpark.
I was just there last week! It's currently a skii resort and waterpark. It's nothing like how it was, which is a bit of a shame since i'd love to explore the abandoned ruins of this place, but none are left.
@@Yawyna124 that would be quite unsettling for me if I will go there now. Knowing about the tragedy... 😐
I laughed out loud when I saw the water slide with the loop. LOL! HOW was that okay
Exactly!
Rollercoaster Tycoon taught me that waterslides will always fail you.
The 70s thats how it ok
At 14 years old in 1984 they wouldn't let me ride the Cannonball Loop because I was too skinny. I remember being so disappointed but now I know why. I wasn't heavy enough to complete the loop.
I couldn’t look at it for long! It was instant panic thinking about getting stuck or hurt in that shit.
The 80s were on another level. From as early as 5..we all had to prove our grit.
The journalist in Weird NJ mag really reminds me of that scene in The Hurt Locker. His fond memories of the dangers of Action Park are really spoken like a wild man! You really are a wild man!
The loop on the water slide guys. Imagine you're not fast enough and can't make it out of there, then you're stuck in the dark where nobody hears you screaming and you goddamn know that the person after you is going to slam into your defenseless body at full speed. No doubt that this happened more than once. What the actual fuck did they think when they planned this thing??? This shit is straight out of some cruel nightmare. I feel my heart racing just thinking about this.
Love the username!
People got stuck so often that they eventually added a hatch get people out.
@@TheMedicatedArtist how the fuck did they save them before that lol
And how many people got stuck before they added it
Did they use a rope or something hahaha
They didn't mention the teeth that would get embedded in the slide from people smashing their faces and how people who slid down after would get lacerated by the teeth.
I feel suffocated at the thought. Shudder.
"is that ride safe"
"I mean the kid we paid 20 bucks to try the thing lived so..."
Employee: I've had PTSD since that day
Bruh
False. They gave him $100. 🤣😂
"Yeah so...its all good bro" 😆💀 lmfao
Makes me think of Kearney from The Simpsons "well it ain't getting any safer"
The 50mph go karts sound like a good time
It's insane that this park was open as long as it was
"I'm Johnny Knoxville and this is Action Park"
Underrated comment
💀💀
😂😂😂😂😂💀
Shut up and take my money
Ironically he made a movie where he was the drunk and irresponsible owner of a water park based on action park
As soon as you walk in all you hear is:
Objective: Survive.
Neat idea for an indie game
LMFOOOAOA
Even if it was your first time going, you heard the stories and nicknames from other people. Everybody loved to brag about how dangerous the rides were, there is no way you walked into that park thinking that everything was safe. They used to park one of the ambulances they had to buy for the town between the parking lot and the entrance, so it was the first thing you saw walking in. You'd think that would be bad for business, but it worked for Traction Park.
I'm back to comment... In the 70s a small (maybe 15 ft tall) wooden Ferris Wheel showed up in our neighborhood. Of course it was tempting and neighborhood kids trespassed. It required two kids to manually move one kid up to the top, then let go. I was the first kid to try it. When they let go, the wooden cart I rode (legs criss cross) spun around and around, including the cart itself. I literally could have been decapitated when it spun around near the ground. Yes, I survived 1970's childhood 😁
The loop in a waterslide: I have difficulties to comprehend how this would work physically... I mean on the top you would not have any water to slide on...?
Yeah I feel like that drop needed to be a tad bit steeper for that to ever work 💀 let alone the fact the top of the slide would be completely dry unless a hose was ran through the entire slide
Hmm I never thought about that. There's a movie about this place with Johnny knoxville
It'd be like getting flushed down the toilet
Well most water slides propel you using moving water so the probably had water at a fairly high speed to push them through
Centrifugal force would (should) keep you and the water going around the outside of the loop. However, as stated in this video, if someone wasn't going fast enough they'd stall out at the top and then drop down against the inside wall of the loop, causing injury. Or worse, they'd have just enough momentum to get over the top of the loop and then drop down the downward part of the loop.
“During the 1995 season the park operated without insurance” it surprises me that this was still open in 1995
Its still open today its not called action park anymore its called mountain creek and I was there a year ago and all the attractions except go carts are open
I remember taking my son there in 1995 to see the misfits play.
operated without insurance....WITHOUT INCIDENT🤨🤣🤣
@@ominouspsychadelic8560 And skiing in the winter
Who the hell would actually insure it?
I've seen soooo many videos about action park but it's so crazy they never get old
The Alpine Slide stories always remind me of a similar ride at the "Kentucky Adventure Park" near Mammoth Caves. My dad's sled jumped the track and he tore up his leg, we used every piece of bandaging and gauze in our first-aid kit patching him up (no first aid from the park). Full disclosure, he was intentionally trying to go as fast as possible by leaning on the curves without braking, so probably at least partially his own fault, but from my memory there was nobody there instructing us. I also don't think we were provided helmets or anything like that; if he hit his head it probably would have been a lot worse. This was almost 15 years ago now, so hopefully it's safer now as I believe it is still open
When I saw the loop I just kept saying "How is that a good idea?" many times...
Haha! Same! I was thinking it would've been cooler as a horizontal loop that flung you out the end at an angle.
@@queenofswords6463 that is wild too 😂😂😂
Some ideas are meant to be good. Others are just meant to be ideas.
i would have been one of those kids that was WAY too wimpy to go down that slide.
I know right.. like.. if you know about gravity and all.. how do you ever think that a loop is going to be a good idea on a water slide!??
“Only 6 deaths?” Yeah but consider the thousands of undiagnosed head injuries… you ever drive around Jersey? This park is probably the source of a lot of brain damage
I'm actually starting to think brain damage from head injuries somehow became hereditary!
Your deadpan comment did make me laugh 😂
Nope. It's the schools.
Still can't get over the carts going 50mph ! Wtf
Suddenly it all makes so much sense. Wonder if the "Jersey Slide" maneuver has its roots in action park as well.
It's genetic.
I was part of the Action Park generation in New Jersey. We knew the dangers, we frequently looked at the pics of injuries they posted as warnings at the Alpine Slide. It truly was a rite of passage. 😊
I remember riding an Alpine Slide (Oregon) in the 80s and my uncle flew off the track. His clothes were comedically torn to shreds but somehow he was okay. It's still operating today.
“Once a few employees survived an experience, it was usually declared safe”
“Survived”. That is grade A safety standards right there
You mean " *GRAVE* A safety standard", maybe?!!!
I heard that loud and clear too. Blimey! People reminisce about this park like “We were veterans who served in combat together” 😂
"A few"? 😲
My brother went to Action Park with his class the day after I left to go to Desert Storm. We hugged at the airport, because we both knew that some wouldnt make it back. Thankfully, he and everyone in his class survived.
Rofl!!!
🤣
Omg lol!!!!
I'd take my chances with Action Park, over war in the desert anyday.
I'm glad you did
To be fair, this was definitely during a time of 'if you put yourself in this dangerous situation, its your own damn fault'
Oh my god that place looks awesome
So this is why older generations call us "soft," cuz they had real life torture chambers as "entertainment"
Edit: y'all took this a little too seriously, I know it's hard to read tone through text but damn, this was a joke
Taking down Monkey Bars in childrens playgrounds, cause parents are too afraid kids will hurt themselves. Back then, what didn't kill you, made you stronger.
@@markusbrauns4274 AND the monkey bars were right on the macadam!!! I remember a kid falling off and getting stitches.......
As a member of the older generation you refer to, I would say that you could not be more correct. Not gonna lie.... stuff like that was fun! (until your head gets bashed in or you drown). Shame that isn't even a choice anymore.... More often than not surviving a risk does more for you than avoiding it altogether.
Never went to that particular park, to be honest. The news often had a story about an accident there, and very rarely about any other park. There is a reason it was known as "Traction Park."
@@karylkline6442 A lot of us got hurt on them. It taught us a valuable life lesson don't grab metal bars in 90 degree heat lol.
@@jokerz7936How about those sliding boards that were metal? They were hot too! One of the schools I went to had a macadam playground but the climbing equipment, swings, and slides were on the grass. The macadam had the dodgeball circle, basketball courts, 4-square plot, and a kickball area. My first elementary school was where the boy fell off the monkey bars. Oh, and the other one, the track was out in the field. That was a small school with one classroom per grade until 5th snd 6th. We found a praying mantis neat out in the field at recess, it was pretty cool. One thing that would NEVER happen today, our 6th grade teachers took us spelunking. Whoever wanted to go and had parental permission. We loaded up into 2 cars, in old clothes, and went down ropes, through tight spaces, on the belly in puddles between "rooms". It was actually scary when there are bats, and you have no idea where the exit is. I don't know if people even still go there. They likely do, but they are not and never were, to my knowledge, marked or monitored, so if you go it is at your own risk. I loved the 70s
This park is the embodiment of the “her arms were cut off, her legs were cut off, her head was cut off” audio
From what...?
@@mb2001 i’m pretty sure it’s from tiktok
Lmfaoooo
pulls out the that's terrible, that's hilarious spongebob meme lmfao
“....Her eyeballs were plucked out. Her eyebrows were then waxed.” Lmao
Me and a few friends used to go there in the early 80's from Long Island and sleep in the car the night before. We had no idea about all of this. It was quite common to see arms and legs scraped up from the Alpine Slide, and that's why we never rode it, but that was the extent of the injuries we knew about. We had a blast there, and none of us ever got hurt.
They had one of those "alpine" slides at Alton Towers in the uk which we went on in 1981 when we went as a leaving school trip, at 16. My friend went too fast and came off, burning a hole in his coat on the concrete ( and possibly asbestos containing) track. He was lucky but it shows how dangerous these alpine rides were and I can totally confirm they were dangerous. Alton Towers removed theres long ago 😳🤔