{"id":860291,"date":"2025-07-05T19:11:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T00:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/05\/firm-fined-after-apprentice-severed-thumb-in-hotel-build\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T19:11:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T00:11:54","slug":"firm-fined-after-apprentice-severed-thumb-in-hotel-build","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/05\/firm-fined-after-apprentice-severed-thumb-in-hotel-build\/","title":{"rendered":"Firm fined after apprentice severed thumb in hotel build"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wrapper_sleeve\">\n<p><img width=\"620\" height=\"414\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/04\/ED-ONLY_HSE_shutterstock_2188028785.webp\"  decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  alt=\"ED-ONLY_HSE_shutterstock_2188028785.webp\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A construction firm has been fined \u00a340,000 after an apprentice joiner had his thumb severed off by a rotating blade.<\/p>\n<p>The teenage apprentice was working for 3B Construction when the incident happened during the conversion of a 19th century hunting lodge into a luxury hotel in the Highlands.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of the incident on 8 June 2021, the apprentice, who had been with the company for six months, was using a portable table saw to cut plasterboard during the project at Hope Lodge in Tongue.<\/p>\n<p>His hand came into contact with the saw blade when he went to flick away material on it and the blade cut through his thumb.<\/p>\n<p>He was taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness and underwent surgery where doctors managed to reattach his thumb.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/health-and-safety\/liquidated-firm-showed-blatant-disregard-for-fire-safety-03-07-2025\/\">Health and Safety Executive<\/a> (HSE) said he still has long term complications as a result of the incident.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He believes his thumb is working to around 70 per cent of what it used to be, and it has healed as much as it can,&#8221; they said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is shorter than his other thumb, he can\u2019t bend it fully and it is permanently swollen. In winter he suffers significant discomfort when the thumb becomes stiff and sore.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, the man has since resumed his apprenticeship with another firm.<\/p>\n<p>The HSE said the 3B Construction was been fined \u00a340,000 at Tain Sheriff Court.<\/p>\n<p>During its investigation the health and safety watchdog found that 3B Construction failed to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>undertake a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to employees operating a table circular saw,<\/li>\n<li>ensure that the system of work for the operation of said saw was safe and appropriately supervised,<\/li>\n<li>provided the apprentice joiners with the information, instruction and training needed to operate said saw safely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The HSE said 3B Construction Limited, of Cassillis Business Park, Minishant Ayr, pleaded guilty to Section 2(1) and Section 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.<\/p>\n<p>HSE inspector Norman Schouten said: \u201cWhile this young man continues to live with the trauma and impact of this incident, it\u2019s greatly encouraging to see him continuing to work as a joiner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, it is only the efforts of medical professionals that prevented this from becoming a permanent amputation following the failures of the company.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompanies and individuals should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section id=\"miso-related-article-grid\">\n<p><h3>Related Articles<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/health-and-safety\/firm-fined-after-apprentice-severed-thumb-in-hotel-build-04-07-2025\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Nicola Harley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A construction firm has been fined \u00a340,000 after an apprentice joiner had his thumb severed off by a rotating blade. The teenage apprentice was working for 3B Construction when the incident happened during the conversion of a 19th century hunting lodge into a luxury hotel in the Highlands. At the time of the incident on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":860292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35980,22853],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-860291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-apprentice","8":"category-fined"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}