The way ride safety is actually developed in North America is somewhat peculiar. It rarely occurs in front of cameras and never occurs on the floor of a state legislature. It occurs in technical committee meetings that most people would find intolerably boring, in hotel conference rooms during lengthy January seminars in Orlando, and in the slow back-and-forth of engineers debating bolt tolerances and inspection intervals. David Bromilow has spent a significant amount of his career there, and his influence has gradually begun to be felt there.
After years of working in the attractions industry as a graduate engineer—the type of person operators typically call when something on a coaster doesn’t sound right—Bromilow joined the AIMS International board. He is not well-known in the media. The trade press doesn’t quote him every other week. However, his name has a quiet weight in the small, close-knit world of ride safety—the kind that results from regularly appearing in the rooms where standards are actually written, year after year.
| Profile Snapshot | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | David Bromilow |
| Role | Board Member, AIMS International |
| Background | Graduate engineer, decades of attractions-industry experience |
| Area of Focus | Ride safety standards, inspection protocols, operator training |
| Affiliated Organization | AIMS International — global leader in amusement safety education |
| Industry Partners | International Ride Training (IRT), ASTM International |
| Major Annual Event | AIMS Safety Seminar — drawing hundreds of inspectors and instructors yearly |
| Geographic Influence | North America, with growing reach into Asia Pacific and Latin America |
| Notable Collaboration | iROC (International Ride Operator Certification) curriculum development |
To be honest, the issue he has been working on is embarrassing for such a big industry. The regulatory map of North America resembles a committee-sewn patchwork quilt. A 1989 law exempts Florida’s largest theme parks from state regulation. There is virtually no government oversight in nine states, including Alabama, Nevada, and Wyoming. In contrast, California has one of the strictest inspection policies in the world. Three hours away, a ride that is perfectly legal in one state might not pass inspection. This is the kind of inconsistency that eventually catches up with an industry.
People like Bromilow are attempting to close that gap through voluntary standards that have sufficient technical authority for operators to adopt them despite the slow progress of legislation. The global standards for amusement rides are written by the F24 committee of ASTM International, which has over a thousand members.
Alongside it, AIMS trains the inspectors and operators who put those standards into practice. One of the links between the two domains has been Bromilow, which has assisted in converting engineering theory into a tool that a maintenance technician can utilize before the gates open at six in the morning.
The incremental nature of the work is what makes it both fascinating and a little annoying to watch. There isn’t a moment of significant reform. Just a gradual tightening, one conference at a time. Seminars in Singapore, Vancouver, and Colombia are already part of the 2026 AIMS calendar—a reach that would have seemed improbable ten years ago. The operations curriculum has been significantly expanded through partnerships with International Ride Training. It’s not glamorous at all. It’s all important.
It’s difficult to ignore how much contemporary ride safety depends on individuals who aren’t mentioned in the brochures. There is no real reason to question Disney, Universal, or SeaWorld’s carefully crafted declarations that safety is their top priority.
However, most visitors will never hear of the engineers who wrote, debated, and improved the standards upon which those claims are based. Bromilow is one of them, and it appears that the industry is gradually realizing what he has been saying for years: shared standards, training, and consistency are no longer optional. It remains to be seen if the regulators will eventually comply. For the time being, the work goes on, mostly out of sight, which is probably how he likes it.
