Every so often you find one of those Wikipedia labors of love. Today’s version (and no, it isn’t a prank) is this article on Action Park, a famously dangerous amusement park in New Jersey. Written with great skill and attention to detail, as well as extensive sourcing per Wikipedia standards, it’s a classic Jersey story. A few excerpts:
-The sleds were a large factor in the injuries. A stick that was supposed to control speed led, in practice, to just two options on the infrequently maintained vehicles: extremely slow, and a speed described by one former employee as “death awaits”.
-The karts were meant to be driven around a small loop track at a speed of about 20 mph (32 km/h) set by the governor devices on them. However, park employees knew how to circumvent the governors by wedging tennis balls into them, and they were known to do so for park-goers. As a result, an otherwise standard small-engine car ride became a chance to play bumper cars at 50 mph (80 km/h), and many injuries resulted from head-on collisions.
