SortI called Action Park and opened his doors in 1978. For almost two decades he was one of the most discussed and controversial fun parks in the world. Located in New Jersey, north-east of the United States, it attracted thousands of visitors every summer thanks to the promise of extreme attractions and total freedom. Divided into three main areas, Alpine Center, Water World and Motor World, offered adrenaline experiences such as Go-kart at 100 km/h, vertical ring slides and concrete bob tracks. The problem? Many of these attractions were built without the contribution of qualified engineers and often Test directly on the publicwithout real security measures. It is not surprising that the nickname with which went to history both “class action park”, with reference to the numerous legal causes for accidents (and in some cases dead) reported by those who set foot us.
Between serious accidents and absent controls
The list of accidents that happened at Action Park is long and disturbing. The most emblematic case is perhaps that of the Cannonball Loop slide, a closed tube with a vertical loop that caused teeth and bruises wounds to anyone who ventured. Some passengers came out bloody, others literally lost their teeth inside the tube. But the slide was not the only problem: the slide alpine, a downhill track on which it ventured with a small sled, was the scene of hundreds of injuries, between abrasions, broken bones e even a death. To worsen things, the park operated without a real insurance. The owner, Mulvihill Gene, He did not believe in the very concept of civil liability. He had come to create a false insurance company to deceive the law. In the 1980s, he was offending for fraud and other economic crimes, but the fame of the park continued incredibly to grow.
The legend of Action Park does not stop fascinating
Those who grew up by attending Action Park remember him with a mixture of nostalgia and terror. Despite (or perhaps precisely for) its fame of dangerous place, the park has remained a symbol of the excess and the incussion of an era in which everything seemed possible. In 2020 a documentary came out, Class Action Parkwhich brought the most incredible stories related to the park back to the fore, collecting testimonies of former employees and visitors. The narrative that emerges is that of a park where the rules were few and very high risks. Those who lived it speaks of a sense of freedom today unthinkable, but also of the disproportionate price that some have paid.
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