All too often complaints ring out about the world going “health-and-safety mad”. For a reminder of how much times have changed, in the attractions industry especially, try watching 1980s footage (see below) of Action Park in New Jersey, US. The headline-hitting theme park — where numerous injuries and at least six fatalities were recorded — closed in 1996. Now it’s in the news again, having re-opened on June 14th under the stewardship of the founder’s son, Andrew Mulvihull.



Since 2013, the adventure park has gained widespread notoriety, thanks to a short documentary created by journalist Seth Porges and former park customers. Action Park, which claimed to have one of the most modern water parks in the world when it opened in 1978, was the brainchild of Gene Mulvihull, who son Andrew says was the one who invented the rides, or brought other “inventors” in. When interviewed about the newly opened version of Action Park, he told Fox news: “It’s highly regulated. Everything’s engineered. We’ve brought back all the thrills but none of the spills.”

The park’s reputation has become something of legend, with attractions reportedly unsupervised or operated by underage staff, the riders unrestricted and the rides themselves untested. Stories of broken bones, scrapes and bruises on rides like the Alpine Slide and Cannonball Loop are not hard to come by. “You’d see a kid in the summer covered in friction burns, and you’d be like, ‘Oh, how was Action Park?’” quips one of the subjects in Porges’s documentary.

The park was closed and sold in 1996, and opened up as Mountain Creek under new owners. A group including Andrew Mulvihull bought back the resort in 2010, and reinstated the name Action Park this summer, with original rides as well as new additions. One of those is a Zero-G water slide with a 1,000ft (300m) drop, proving the spirit of the park has not been lost.