[SoapBox Mode]
I suspect that there's a Darwin factor at work. Those who survived the earlier days of OPE technology, raise your remaining hand! FWIW, well into the end of the last century, a significant percentage of farmers and other equipment operators in construction and manufacturing lost fingers and more regularly to their tools. Same with automobiles -- how did so many survive without airbags and programmed crush zones? Probably because we also didn't have cellphones and other distractions. Most people were aware of the dangers and paid attention. Some didn't.
Yes, I'm happy that we have safety systems in our cars and OPE, our farm equipment has guards and safety features that really do force operators to work at getting injured. Yet 'famous' personalities still manage to get run over by their own snow cats when they forget to set a parking brake when they jump out of the seat. Folks still go home empty handed when they decide to clear a modern-machine chute or auger rake manually, with the engine running, and without using that handy plastic stick.
Battery-electric snow-blowers will be here soon enough. Those will have idiot-switches connected to a prox sensor on the handles. If the operator isn't behind the machine, nothing moves. I suspect that many accidents now happen because somebody decides it's too much work restarting the engine if they shut it down to clear snow clogs out of the front. They test the odds, and 99/100 times someone somewhere gets away with it. But those odds are spread out over a huge number or operators, and while every one of them is above-average (just ask...), the math just doesn't work that way.
Got a "dangerous" machine? Respect it and enjoy it once in a while. Many of us still keep "old" cars and drive them for fun. I worry most about other folks running into it while talking with or texting their friends. Ditto any other "dangerous" machines. Respect them, pay attention, keep the less attentive away, you will probably be fine.
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Some early career years were spent designing manufacturing and packaging equipment for a large consumer-products company. A large percentage of the design requirements included "easy to clean" and "hard to hurt yourself". Operators quickly figured out how to bypass safety interlocks and run with doors and safety guards off so they could clear loose stuff without stopping the machines. "Foolproof" is impossible.
[/soapbox mode]
It's snowing out right now. Grabbing my "safety" broom.
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