Featured Image Credit: HBO
Topics: US News, Health, HBO, Film and TV
Poppy Bilderbeck
People are flooding to social media in horror over a HBO Max documentary about an 'infamous' theme park.
Back in 1978, an amusement and water park was opened in Vernon, New Jersey.
However, by 1996, the park was shut down, considered by some to be 'an ill-conceived death trap'. But what went so wrong?
Well, a documentary film by HBO Max has revealed the true extent of the dangers and reputation of the park. Prepare to peer between your fingers:
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A person in the trailer for the documentary introduces the park by saying there was 'nothing in the world like Action Park' and it soon becomes very apparent why this is.
A narrator calls the documentary a 'true crime story' - the park becoming known as the 'world's most dangerous amusement park' for the lack of thought put into the structure of its rides, which HBO Max notes 'violate[d] the laws of common sense (and perhaps physics)'.
The park became a hotspot for teenagers to congregate and get drunk with their friends and it wasn't the park, but the 'people who controlled the action,' one interviewee warns.
"There were no rules," another adds.
Combine no rules with excessive alcohol consumption and being surrounded by rickety rides plus water and well, today's health and safety organisations would've had it shut down as quickly as you could say, 'Actio...'.
But unfortunately, the park wasn't closed and not only chaos, but injuries and even death ensued - HBO Max's documentary claiming 110 injuries were sustained in just one year, 45 of which were head injuries and 10 of which were fractures, the alcohol provided on-site noted as being a contributing factor.
Interviewees in the documentary claim there were incidents of electrocution, fractured vertebrae, someone being 'impaled on a bolt' and a heart attack too.
And six people are known to have died as a direct result of the park's rides.
Three of them drowned in the wave pool; 19-year-old park employee George Lasson Jr was killed when a slide derailed and he hit his head on a rock; a 27-year-old man was electrocuted after he came into contact with water a loose wire had touched on the Kayak Experience; and another visitor had a heart attack when he hit the freezing cold water of the Tarzan Swing.
Then there's the insane Cannonball Loop - a slide with a vertical loop that decapitated a dummy when they tested it.
Once it opened, several people ended up with injuries after scraping against the embedded teeth of previous riders. Yikes.
The park's theme tune, singing 'The action never stops' certainly took on a deadly reality.
And people are flooding to social media to recommend the watch.
One X user wrote: "B***h please watch Class Action Park on HBOMax. It’s a documentary about a very poorly regulated/constructed amusement park and this s**t is WILD."
"I went there as a kid with a camp. Surprised to have made it out unscathed," another added.
A third commented: "Yup. You were definitely taking your life in your hands going to Action Park back in the day….lol."
And a fourth resolved: "If you’re not watching the documentary Class Action Park on TNT right now you need to get on it right now omg."
Class Action Park is available to stream on HBO Max.