In case you are talking heavy machinery in the lumber yard, alcohol is a no go there now. School friend of mine lost his apprenticeship due to liver problems ~ 15 years ago. It was considered too dangerous to have him work with saws as it couldnt be ruled out that he could pass out and fall into one. Relative of mine also lost his job as a truck driver due to substance abuse despite it not reaching the threshold for loosing his driver license.
This is not to say there arent deadly accidents in Germany. Friend of mine builds electrical substations and the company has regular (deadly) high voltage accidents. Roughly one or two a year since he has been there (not on his site but across all projects of the company). Sadly often unskilled laborers that didnt understand the safety instructions due to language barriers. So falling through grids covering open high voltage or digging up a line.
Since it has been mentioned elsewhere that the threat of lawyers is higher in the US, in Germany you are personally liable in many industries. So those dead workers lead to criminal investigations into the people in charge which can mean years in prison and fines. Technically the company is banned from helping with the fines but there seem to be some bonus payments happening if your company isnt a complete shit. Its still not something you risk as it means you will have a few horrible years in front of you even if you end up being cleared.
Edit: That liability, which also covers shortcomings during the build process discovered later is the reason he is currently looking for another job.
Don't know where you got the idea it's different in California. What do you think happens if you negligently lead to deaths? It's as criminal in California to negligently kill your employees as it is in Germany. It's not some lawless land of corporate freedom.
The original post specifically mentioned that the government sanctioned and fined the company to curtail their abuses, they just didn't lead to any directly attributable deaths.
I think we might be talking past each other. I am not talking about employers but technical staff. Those are employees themselves with no human resources responsibility.
edit: I think the intention is to keep management strictly out of real world safety critical decisions. To simplify, if you got an MBA your opinion is meaningless when it comes the safe running of the physical site.