I don't think the original question is daft at all.
H & S is all about managing risks not about eliminating them altogether. The unforeseen will always happens but those risks that can be reduced or eliminated, what's so odd about thinking in terms of those?
I know from experience that sometimes employees can be pretty thick when it comes to equipment. Either they have the view 'this is what they gave me to work with so I'll use it untill it falls apart' or they just don't understand.
It's too late after a preventable accident for the employer to say they didn't realise the equipment was faulty and that there was no system in place to check, as far as is practically possible, the work worthiness of the equipment being used.