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Joe Shlabotnik via Flickr4 of 9
ACTION PARK ALPINE SLIDE - VERNON TOWNSHIP, NJ
The Alpine Slide as a basic concept is already toeing the line between awesome and lethal. Most examples consist of concrete-and-fiberglass chute that patrons scoot down on crude sleds or carts featuring cruder brakes and (if you’re lucky) seatbelts.
The Alpine Slide of New Jersey’s infamous Action Park (known by some as “Traction Park” or “Class-Action Park”) upped the ante by combining these rickety sleds with customers who were almost always wearing swimsuits for the nearby water park and were quite often drunk.
Action Park’s first fatality was due to an employee taking a sled at full speed through the course, then hurtling off an embankment. The management added safety measures in the form of haystacks, but the slide was responsible for most of the park’s injuries and legal troubles—in the 84-85 season alone, sliders suffered 14 fractures and 26 head injuries.
RULE No17
If a man's zipper is down, let him know. One day yours will be down.
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Who writes this stuff? "crude sleds or carts featuring cruder brakes and (if you’re lucky) seatbelts." Hello? What good do seatbelts do on a "vehicle" that masses less than you do? Just guarentee that your sled comes flying with you (adding to you mass), rather than go flying off course by yourself!
January 23 2013 at 3:32 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThe phrasing of the Traver's Triplets suggests that Cyclone was resopnsible for both deaths. In fact, one was a woman on the Lighting (uncertain if she jumped or fell), and the one attributed to the Cyclone was a man who decided to stand up and take his coat off (showing stupid customers are not a modern convention, though "idiot stopper" restraints are). Hardly attributable to the design or construction of the ride.