Safety First??? ha ha ha ha
My normal response is to snicker whenever I hear the trite battle cry "Safety First."
I formed this position years ago in university whilst working on my minor in Aviation Safety.
Whilst "Safety First" might sound cute, warm, fuzzy, etc. the fact of the matter is that it never does come first, before everything else. It never will. Moreover, it never should.
This is not to say that safety should not be a priority. However, by nature, aviation (like driving or boating or almost anything else) is an activity where calculated risks and best practices are used to acomplish objectives while reducing risk to acceptable levels.
I learned in university that there are only two reasons why safety practices are followed:
1) The Government says it must be done (a.k.a. Regulations).
2) It makes economic sense.
The first case is the more clearcut reason.
The second case, however, is harder to evaluate. Economic sense means that for every dollar spent on safety, at least a dollar will be returned in savings. This is why the aviation industry is hesitant to invest, on their own, in such safety measures as replacing inflamable materials in aircraft cabins, fuel tank inerting systems, missle-jamming systems, etc. The problem is that cost of an accident is difficult to esimate. It includes such costs as loss of hull, loss of revenue, settleing of legal suits, rise in insurance premiums, loss of reputation and future business, replacement costs, etc. etc. Very rarely is "human suffering" or emotion a part of this equation.