Danger Park and Beyond

The love people still have for the New Jersey landmark would result in it being reopened to great fanfare in , but the jury is still out on if that was a good idea or not.

Like many famous non-Disney, non-Universal theme parks, Action Park had quite humble beginnings. In a company called Great American Recreation, which had recently purchased a skiing area in New Jersey, was looking for ways to utilize the spot in the off season. Vernon Valley Summer Park kept steadily growing over a relatively short period of time. It started out with two waterslides and a race car track, but quickly added more waterslides, a swimming pool, tennis courts and a softball field over the next few years.

At the beginning of the s that softball field was replaced with a gigantic wave pool, one of the first in the country. That made up most of Waterworld.

Secondary Drowning Danger for Kids Can Go Beyond the Pool

Motorworld was later created in the swampy areas nearby owned by Great American Recreation. Together the water park ultimately had 75 rides altogether 40 of them being water slides. Great American Recreation started leaning into heavy promotion for their water park, mainly targeting people in the areas surrounding New York City. Check out one of the original, very hokey commercials.

Action Park

They were remembered for two jingles that were and are far too catchy: By the s Action Park was a prime destination in the summer, especially on weekends, for many in the surrounding states. Action Park was loved by many especially younger people for the insane level of control it offered guests over their experiences at the park. That freedom would eventually come back to bite the owners AND some of the visitors in the butt, though. Starting in the controversies and legal struggles that went on to largely define Action Park would begin to hit in full force….

• Search form;
• Your Education: Beyond Stranger Danger.
• ;
• !
• Rockstar Ghost PG-13 Version.

As much as the owners probably hate the fact, the most remembered thing about Action Park is the danger it posed to its guests. There were quite a few reasons it was arguably the least safe theme park in the whole world. Here are some of the biggest causes of the immense danger at Action Park in its worst years.

As one of the very first water parks in the United States, Action Park was a pioneer in the design of water park rides. That was one of the big excuses for why its attractions caused so many accidents.

But reports like this one from Matthew Callan suggest that the designers of the rides were far from experts in engineering and physics. In a lot of ways they seemed to be experimenting with human subjects, seeing how guests would end up after they got off the rides. According to folklore, Action Park offered the employees a hundred-dollar bill to try out the obviously-dangerous Cannonball Loop, pictured above.

The rides were also created for the lowest price GAR could manage, with an allegedly minimal amount of maintenance and a hesitance to fully renovate the rides. No one person has been held responsible for this. Who is best to manage crazy guests, often teenagers trying to one-up their friends by risking extreme danger.

Navigation menu

Probably not other teenagers! Jim DeSave claims that he got his job as a security director two years after he started working at Action Park. He was a frightening twenty-one years old. Weird NJ covers the dilemma well. Many of those guests, because they came from low-income neighborhoods and because there was no place to learn, did not know how to swim.

Your Education: Beyond Stranger Danger - YourSumner

According to the Weird NJ article and other sources, the visitors also treated the whole experience as a wild adventure, making the whole theme park feel lawless. They controlled their destinies and, by extension, sometimes their own fates. Many guests would break clear rules by getting rid of their mats mid-slide so that they could wait for a friend next in line to arrive so they could ride down together. That was one of the major causes of accidents at Action Park. What did Action Park do when they were clearly responsible for some kind of physical injury?

Reportedly, they handed out free passes to the injured parties. Family Holiday Parties Made Simple. Bakeries in Metro Detroit and Ann Arbor. Pros and Cons of Single Gender Schools. Macomb County Student Diversity Summit. Good Classes to Take as a Freshman in College. Managing Emotions in College: How Parents Can Help Students. The Perils of Student Loan Debt: What You Need to Know. Benefits of Gymnastics for Toddlers and Babies.

Extracurricular After-School Programs in Detroit.

What is the Difference Between M. The Dreaded Stomach Bug: What Parents Need to Know. Summertime Swimming Safety Tips for Kids.