On our 212s the Gov panel has been moved to the top right hand side of the centre console, to prevent (as far as possible) this inadvertant selection. The other key is to have rigid SOPs when making selections, especially wrt two crew cross checking. Hands flashing around randomly during post start checks, is a bad thing.
On a more modern note; on the EC-155, the RPM high/norm switch is located just above the number one engine switch. Inattention in its use could well involve selecting the engine to IDLE rather than the RPM to NORMAL; with 30 second ratings, that's expensive!