LogFAQs > #951230938

Action Park's 2,700-foot-long (820 m) alpine slide descended the mountain beneath one of the ski area's chairlifts, which provided guests access to the top of the slide. Riders sat on small sleds that had only a brake/accelerator control stick, and rode down the slide in long chutes built into the slope. The ride, and more specifically the sleds, became notorious for causing injuries. The stick that was supposed to control the sled's speed in practice offered just two options on the infrequently maintained vehicles: extremely slow, and a speed described by one former employee as "death awaits". The chutes the sleds traveled in were made of concrete, fiberglass, and asbestos, which led to serious abrasions on riders who took even mild falls. The tendency of guests to ride in bathing suits made the problem worse. The path underneath the chairlift resulted in verbal harassment and spitting from passengers going up for their turn.

A skatepark briefly existed near the ski area's ski school building, but closed after one season due to poor design. Bowls were separated by pavement, which in many cases did not meet the edges smoothly. Former park employee Tom Fergus was quoted in the magazine Weird NJ as saying that the "skate park was responsible for so many injuries we covered it up with dirt and pretended it never existed".

The Super Go Karts allowed guests to drive around a small loop track at a speed of about 20 miles per hour (32 km/h), controlled by the governor devices on the karts. However, park employees knew how to circumvent the governors by wedging tennis balls into them, and they were known to do so for guests. As a result, an otherwise standard small-engine kart ride became an opportunity to play bumper cars at 50 mph (80 km/h), and many injuries resulted from head-on collisions. Also, the karts' engines were poorly maintained and some riders were overcome by gasoline fumes as they drove.

The Lola Cars were miniature open-cockpit race cars on a longer track. Extra money was charged to drive them, and they, too, could be adjusted for speed by park employees, with similarly harmful consequences to riders. Former employees have said that, after park management briefly set up a microbrewery nearby, employees would break into the brewery, steal the beer, and then take the cars out and ride them on Route 94.

The Super Speedboats were set up in a small pond, known by park staff to be heavily infested with snakes. They could be driven around a small island at 3540 mph (5664 km/h). While, unlike the land vehicles, there was no way to tamper and increase their speed, many riders nonetheless used them to play bumper boats, and one seriously inebriated rider had to be rescued by the attendant lifeguard after his boat capsized following a collision.

Bumper Boats was a supposedly safer ride than the Super Speedboats, but the engines often leaked gasoline, at least once requiring medical attention for one rider who got too much of it on his skin. Tall riders also often were unable to fit their legs on the small-sized boats, resulting in them hanging off of the sides of the boats and being fractured during collisions.

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Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum,
Minutus carborata descendum pantorum.