It's a reasonable counter-example, two other CEOs of successful firms who emphasized safety were Lawrence Culp at Danaher (he is now at GE) and David Cote at Honeywell. All three had tenures more than a decade where their firms invested in and introduced new products, so I suspect they focused on more than worker safety but I am not personally familiar with their policies and decisions.

I think it makes a very good story that a focus on worker safety--to the exclusion of any other objectives--is all that you need. But I don't think anything is that simple.