Out of curiosity, if we take out cattle mustering crashes, mountain flying mishaps, slingload snarl-ups -- in fact anything that isn't sedate onshore VFR air taxi work in ISA conditions (yep, it's a stretch but try), are we saying heli flying is actually fairly safe? You could make two fretful old aged pensioners in Midhurst rest more easily here...
Yes, I think there are some specialties that are much more hazardous than air taxi, but even within that realm some operators do well. Excluding non-professional, non-commercial flying improves the numbers, too. Not to steal Bell Helicopter's thunder, the Jet Ranger and it's derivatives are true works of genius- but part of the reason that the 206 series had a claim as the safest single engine aircraft was the fact that it was the air taxi tool of choice. Operators safety records vary one from another, and most importantly to a pilot, maximize safety by supporting options for the individual. It's one thing to have safety and maintenance procedures in place, quite another to support the SAFE decision when the customer's screaming and it's costing everybody money.
To generalize, pilots WANT to fly, and will do so unless there's a really good reason not to. Encouraging a pilot to make the most conservative and safe decision is hard but goes a long, long way in keeping aircraft out of smoking holes.