Dec 23, 2012 1 min read

HIDDEN VALLEY (AP) – Officials at a Western Pennsylvania ski resort say a teenager was taken to a hospital after falling about 20 feet from a chairlift.

Officials at Hidden Valley Resort in Somerset County say the 15-year-old snowboarder from Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., got on the lift alone at about 7 p.m. Saturday.

Ski patrol director Mike Wallace told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the youth didn’t lower the safety bar, and fell from the chair when he “leaned forward to adjust his boot or binding.”

Wallace says resort employees adjust safety bars so they are within reach of patrons as they embark, but they must be lowered manually.

He says the youth was conscious when he was treated by the ski patrol and taken to Somerset Hospital by ambulance as a precaution.