This tends to be a pretty emotive subject but although the statistics are only just so trustworthy they are worth thinking about.
The fatal accident rate for helicopter flying in the GOM is lower than the N.Sea and from memory virtually all other areas.
The fatal accident rate for single engine helicopters worldwide is better than for complex twins. (Remember the B206 is the most reliable single engined aircraft - including fixed wing!).
Certainly the present accident rate shows a big increase and I'm sure that the causes are probably directly linked to the factors Aviator609 lists. But that still makes helicopter flying in the GoM no more dangerous than elsewhere - and that probably has a lot to do with the authorities response, of lack of it!
It is all too easy to try and play the safety card to address other issues which whilst they are certainly valid issues may not have direct links to safety performance.
We have carried out a number of helicopter safety assessments and the conclusions are perhaps a little surprising;
Fly the smallest helicopters possible for the duty (remember that the N.Sea fatal accident rate is totalled dominated by a single Chinook accident - 40 plus deaths out of the near 100. Other areas have the same issues when they use ex Soviet large machines, any single accident has a large toll - which totally skews the rates).
Fly the helicopters over clement land conditions or if it has to be water, warm-ish water - the survival rates for non-fatal crashes are then quite good.
Have a lot of other helicopter traffic around - improves search and rescue and hence survival rates.
Do not fly small IFR twins - they have the worst accident rates!
The real problems are that so long as the underlying safety performance of single engined helicopters is better than twin engined IFR machines there is never going to be a good argument to upgrade the machines or the pilots. The prevailing conditions in the GoM are much better than many other parts of the world, so the justification for high specifications is simply not there. Then there is the competition aspect to ensure prices are low - so again higher specs simply cannot be justified.
However speaking as a fixed wing pilot I do think that pushing the conditions and long working hours must have an impact and a responsible regulator would look carefully at those aspects - however that is a European type approach, the American regulatory approach is usually prove there is a problem and then we'll do something about it. It would seem that the demonstration of the problem is now occuring.