LINCOLN, Maine — A Mattanawcook Academy student suffered a severed finger and cuts to two others in an accident in a woodworking class on Tuesday, officials said.
The student, whose name was not released, was cutting a piece of wood on a table saw at about 10 a.m. when his hand came in contact with the rotating blade, RSU 67 Superintendent Keith Laser said.
“He was pushing the wood into the saw when it [the wood] lifted up and he tried to push it back. When he did, he [injured] his fingers,” Laser said.
The student was taken to Penobscot Valley Hospital and transferred to a hospital in Boston where surgeons would be trying to reattach the finger. School workers packed the severed finger in ice to preserve it, Laser said.
“There were adults right there,” he said.
The injured student was wearing all the protective gear required — a pair of goggles — when the accident occurred. “There’s nothing you wear on your hands,” Laser said.
High school officials told Laser that the accident was the first in the woodworking shop in at least 30 years, Laser said.
Each year about 67,000 people in the U.S. are injured by table saws, with about 33,000 being treated in emergency rooms, according to the consumer organization Fairwarning.org. There are about 4,000 amputations from table saws annually, according to the organization.