As an engineer I've spent quite a bit of time in factories. Most of them today are pretty good for safety but in some cases there are problems which could be easily corrected.
Also I have friends and relatives who lost fingers in factory accidents. My best friend from high school lost his little finger. My wife's father lost part of his thumb and his father lost a finger, all in factory accidents. I think these things could and should be prevented. So in general I support workplace safety rules, but they should not be allowed to get out of control either.
Many accidents are caused by the negligance of those who were hurt. Now I'm not saying that was the case for the people you know. But OSHA isn't going to stop every accident as I'm sure you realize.
(this is mainly directed at Opebo)