LAKEVILLE - A Lakeville teenager suffered serious internal injuries Jan. 4 when the inner tube he was riding on became airborne on the snow-covered golf course of The Hotchkiss School. The dangerous site has been the scene of numerous accidents over the years.

Will Burchfield, a student at the school and the son of Hotchkiss English teacher Chris Burchfield and his wife, Caroline, was sledding on an incline that runs from the first-hole tee to the ninth-hole green, near the site of the course clubhouse, at about 5 p.m.

Just before the green is a lip on the edge of a sand trap. It's not clear whether Will hit the lip or became airborne on a mogul, said Jacquie Rice, president of the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service, which responded to the call.

"He hit a bump and flew off of it," Rice said.

The ambulance crew transported Will to Sharon Hospital, where a LifeStar helicopter took him to the Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford. Chris Boyle, a hospital spokesperson, said Wednesday morning Will remained in critical condition in the pediatric intensive care unit.

Witnesses say there were several students at the site at the time of the accident. Two of them ran north across Route 112 to report the accident to a school nurse and to the athletic trainer, Rice said.

Battling both the pitch of the slope and the darkness of the hour, rescuers were still able to transfer Will to a military sled and pull him up the hill to a waiting ambulance. Rice said Will was conscious and talking with rescuers the whole time.

Signs warn that skiing and sledding on the golf course is prohibited, but that hasn't prevented people from doing so. On Christmas Day in 2002, a man in his mid-40s fractured his lower back while sledding with several other adult friends. As was the case last week, the man had to be pulled up the hill by rescuers using an Army sled.

The hilly terrain on that part of the school's campus has long been a favorite destination for sledders, who turn out by the dozens after a snowfall. Rice said the ambulance squad is called to that area at least a couple of times a year after sledding and skiing accidents.

Schools officials have said in the past that it isn't possible to police the area 24 hours a day, so they put up the signs to warn would-be sledders to stay away.