A documentary has just been released which has unearthed crazy details about one of the world’s most dangerous amusement parks. 

Action Park, located in the US state of New Jersey (not far from New York City), has been responsible for at least six deaths over the years. 

One visitor drowned in the wave pool, and an employee came off a slide and hit his head on a rock. The park, founded by Eugene Mulvihill, was famous for it’s badly-designed attractions and rides, and terrible safety record. 


The doco, titled ‘Class Action Park’, delves into the myriad of management indiscretions that invariably led to several deaths, plus plenty of injuries. Some include underage and poorly trained staff managing the rides, badly designed and dangerous attractions and flawed testing procedures. 

Alcohol was readily available at the park, leading to inebriated customers fighting with each other and even attacking staff. 

One of the rides – an enclosed tube slide named the Cannonball Loop – was only briefly tested using a dummy, which reportedly re-appeared at the bottom, missing its head. 

The film has been released on HBO, and the synopsis reads: 

 “To some, New Jersey's infamous Action Park was 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). To others, it was an ill-conceived death trap. One thing is sure: It's the type of place that will never exist again.” 

When insurance companies refused to cover the park, as it failed to comply with even the most basic safety requirements, Mr Mulvihill went ahead and created his own company, named London and World Assurance Limited. He was later heavily fined after the insurance company was proven to be fake.


The famous 'Cannonball Loop', image courtesy of HBO. 

Due to its location, plenty of celebrities have visited the park as children, many of whom feature in the film. 

Nightly talk show host Jimmy Kimmel joked that ‘every member of his family had been injured at Action Park’. 

“People would drown in the wave pool, there was an alpine slide which you could just go flying off,” he said. “There was no rail at all.”

Recently, Dreamworld theme park, popular with families on the Gold Coast, was fined millions after causing several deaths in 2016.