A construction company has been fined £40,000 after health and safety breaches led to the amputation of an apprentice’s thumb.
The 18-year-old was using a table saw with a protective guard removed when the accident occurred on the Hope Lodge construction site in Tongue.
The amputated thumb was recovered and surgically reattached, with the patient later regaining 70 per cent usage.
Employers 3B Construction Ltd admitted a single charge of failing to ensure the health and safety of its employees between February 1 and June 8 2021.
The charge detailed how the company failed to undertake suitable and sufficient risk assessment for the use of the saw and failed to ensure a safe and appropriately supervised system of work for the operation.
It also described how the company failed to provide the apprentice joiner with information, instruction and training to allow him to operate the saw safely.
Accident at luxury hotel site
Prosecutor Stella Swan told Sheriff Neil Wilson that the teenager had been working as an apprentice on a project to convert Hope Lodge into a luxury hotel at the time of the incident.
He had not been provided with formal safety training for the use of a table saw, but had been given on-the-job training in the use of the saw by experienced joiners and had signed relevant risk assessments as part of a site induction.
On the day in question, the apprentice had been tasked with cutting a piece of plasterboard using the table saw, from which a protective guard had been removed.
While he was doing so he noticed some material on the saw blade and attempted to flick it away with his hand, which came into contact with the saw blade “resulting in his thumb being cut off”.
The court heard that the young worker alerted others and was taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, before being transferred to Saint Johns Hospital in Livingstone.
Recovered thumb surgically reattached
The thumb – which was recovered at the scene – was subsequently reattached, with the patient regaining 70% usage of the digit.
Ms Swan told the court: “It is likely, if the saw had been properly guarded as per the risk assessment, the accident would not have happened.”
The court heard that the guard was removed from the saw to allow it to be used for tasks it was not designed to carry out, in contravention of risk assessments and user guides.
The prosecutor said a site manager’s practice of simply replacing guards when he discovered they had been removed amounted to “tacit approval” of the practice.
Advocate Barney Ross, for 3B Construction, told the court the incident represented a “regrettable aberration” on the part of a company with a “responsible attitude” to health and safety.
He said: “It is a matter of great regret and contrition for the company.”
The court heard that, in the wake of the accident, the employers had adopted appropriate remedial measures to address the risk, including delivering toolbox talks specifically addressing the use of the saw and relocating the tool to a separate space with written instructions posted nearby.
Handing down a fine of £40,000 – together with a £3,000 victim surcharge – Sheriff Neil Wilson noted the company’s lack of previous convictions and early resolution of the case.
He said: “I have no reason to doubt Mr Ross’s general submission that 3B are a well-established and reputable company that takes its responsibility to employees seriously.”