PEOPLE
Why the 'World's Most Dangerous Amusement Park' Continues to Fascinate, 47 Years After It Opened
Action Park was a Vernon, N.J., amusement park open from May 1978 to September 1996
By Angela Andaloro Published on May 28, 2025 01:48PM EDT
It's hard to believe it's been more than 45 years since one of the country's most talked-about amusement parks first opened its doors.
Action Park, located on Route 94 in Vernon, N.J., was a destination for teenagers and families around the northern part of the state. While days at amusement parks were spent chasing thrills, guests of the notorious attraction have spent the years since its 1996 closing reflecting on just how dangerous some of its attractions could be.
The amusement part was divided into the Alpine Center, Water World and Motor World. In each of those sections were rides that tested the limits of what was possible from amusement parks of the era. It left many guests with unforgettable stories, but also caused some truly shocking outcomes for people looking for a day of outdoor fun.
The infamous location for summer fun was the subject of a 2020 documentary, Class Action Park. Created by filmmakers Chris Charles Scott and Seth Porges, the film shares some of the more shocking stories in Action Park history and why it was still beloved despite so many dangerous incidents. Here are five of the most unbelievable revelations from the documentary.
Cannonball Loop was a stretch from the start
The enclosed tube water slide took guests downhill fast before bringing them up into a loop and shooting them into a landing pool.
"The first couple people that came in came out and their mouths were all bloody. And that was before they had put sufficient padding in the top; there was a little bit. So they sent a couple of other people down, and when those people came down, they came down with lacerations. They couldn't figure out why these people had lacerations from a giant loop," Jim DeSaye, director of park security, recalled in the documentary.
"Then they took the loop apart and found teeth stuck in the padding from the first couple of people that went down the slide and got their teeth knocked out. And these other people are going up and ripping into it."
Some rides allegedly didn't have engineer input
While most amusement parks take a lot of considerations to make sure a ride is plausible and safe, at Action Park, all it took was an idea, former staffers allege.
"A certain number of the Action Park rides were more or less designed in-house by people without engineering degrees, and I was certainly one of them," Ed Youmans, Park Operations Manager, said in the documentary.
"The people who were kind of on the fringes of the ride-design world, people who Six Flags or Disney wanted nothing to do with, these guys would literally track Gene [Mulvihill, owner of Action Park] down at industry conventions," journalist Seth Porges claimed in the film.
Gene was also interested in making rides "bigger, badder and more extreme," Porges said, leading him to tinker with designs, at time mid-construction.
"Many of the rides were experimental, and on paper, the design looked good," said head lifeguard Bob Krahulik. "But in reality, once the ride was turned on, it was not fit for a safe ride by the average person in public."
Items from Action Park would end up on nearby Route 94
It wasn't unusual for a ride in Action Park to go off course. On more than on occasion, parts of attractions even ended up on Route 94, the highway that divided areas of the park.
One ride "was this giant ball that we had with ball bearings inside it with another ball and you would open two doors and get in the ball to go down the mountain," Action Park CEO Andrew Mulvihill explained in the documentary, noting that the track was built with PVC pipe.
The ball couldn't stay on track because of its size and shape. Additionally, the PVC track couldn't always hold up against the summer heat.
"The day that we were gonna put a live man in it, it got really hot and he didn't realize that PVC expanded. So when we put the live man in the ball and tested it to go down the mountain, the ride just fell apart and the guy ended up going down the ski slope right over 94 into the swamp down below. It was unbelievable," Andrew said.
Another incident occurred when employees figured out how to "override the speed governor" so go-karts known as LOLA cars could go up to 60 miles per hour.
"I took a LOLA car on 94," confirmed Youmans. "It has a top speed of over 60 miles an hour. It was worth it."
The park reportedly did not carry insurance
As Action Park built its controversial reputation, people wondered who insured the park. It came to light that the park was uninsured because, as Porges claimed, "Gene didn't believe in the concept of insurance."
"He thought if you got hurt, you should be responsible. He shouldn't have to pay insurance companies. However, he needed insurance to stay in business. It was part of the terms for the lease, so he had a workaround."
The workaround ended up being a fake insurance company that was made up by Gene himself on behalf of his parent company, Great American Recreation. According to a 1985 New York Times article, "Great American Recreation personnel, between 1977 and 1981, counterfeited paperwork and created a bogus insurance company to execute an elaborate self-insurance scheme that defrauded state agencies, Vernon Township and private companies and individuals."
Gene was among the defendants ultimately charged with 110 counts of criminal conspiracy, fraud, forgery, theft and embezzlement to meet state lease requirements, per the Times. He "was fined $45,150 and put on probation for three years. State prosecutors said that the court also designated him as personally responsible for Great American Recreation's corporate fine of $250,000," the Times added.
The Alpine Slide saw some of the most gruesome injuries
Those who visited the 2,700-ft. Alpine Slide rode in sleds that had a brake and accelerate control stick. The chutes were made of concrete and fiberglass, which could lead to serious road rash and other injuries for riders who might lose their sled amid the ride.
"The area around the slide was just rock, so everything from broken bones to concussions. On an average day, you would have 50 to 100 people injured. On a weekend, you could double that," alleged security guard Mark Johnson.
In one incident in 1980, a rider had a sled with a malfunctioning brake, which caused him to hit a turn wrong and be thrown from the cart. The rider, George Larsson Jr., hit his head on a rocky area around the ride after being thrown from the sled. He was in a coma for a week before he died, at just 19 years old. His death came just four days before he was supposed to be the best man in his brother's wedding.
Gene made sure that accident wasn't reported to the state, the documentary states, claiming George wasn't a member of the general public but rather a former employee whose accident occurred in the rain after hours. The details were false and when the case went to litigation, Gene settled with the Larsson family for $100,000.
Gene died on Oct. 27, 2012, at the age of 78.
Class Action Park is streaming on HBO Max.
