Punishing the company into bankruptcy is one thing, but the company is made up of individuals who will go work at other companies and likely escape lawsuits sin

Punishing the company into bankruptcy is one thing, but the company is made up of individuals who will go work at other companies and likely escape lawsuits since they were operating within the umbrella of their job. So ultimately the shareholders who weren’t involved in the catastrophe will be punished and not the people that ultimately caused the issue. No argument from me that the shareholders should take a major financial loss (they should demand better safety controls), but to prevent this from happening again (which I think is the key goal, rather than plain old retribution), I am arguing that there should be strict liability for the individuals as well - throw them in jail, bankrupt them, etc, so that a message is sent that employees of all companies owe, at a minimum, a duty of care to protect the safety of the general public. Essentially take away the employees’ ability to say “I was just following orders to try to maximize shareholder value”. Give the employees, in response, some protection from being fired for upholding this new obligation.