The accident rates for rotorcraft helicopter are roughly the same as for general aviation. GA's fatal accident rate last year was around 1.05 fatal accidents/100000 flt hours, while the rotorcraft rate in 2010 was 0.82 fatal accidents/100000 flt hours. The numbers change so much when divided up by the specific type of flying that it's almost impossible to make any conclusions.
I will state, however, that the risk exposure in the helicopter world is substantially higher. Private helicopter students will typically be expected to land and takeoff from a 50'X50' clearing during training, autorotate into spaces the size of a parking lot, land on a sandbanks, and cruise at 500' agl or less, often in visual conditions that would be considered mvfr or ifr by fixed-wing pilots. Commercial helicopter pilots, depending on their job, may routinely land and depart from clearings in the woods, often at night and in atrocious weather, some pilots may frequently carry heavy loads from under the aircraft, or fly next to powerlines all day, while others operate off of windy oil rig and boat decks.
If the fixed-wing community operated in this manner, the accident rate would be outrageous. Many private airplane pilots feel uncomfortable on 2000' grass runways, never operate VFR in less than 3SM of visibility, and only go below 2000' agl when landing and departing from well-marked obstruction free runways. Corporate airplane air taxis operate in an even more sterile environment.
Basically, its nearly impossible to draw any useful conclusions from the accident rates for the respective communities.
https://www.aea.net/events/rotorcraft/files/US_Rotorcraft_Accident_Data_And_Statistics.pdf
