ORONO — A 6-year-old girl from Carmel was transported by ambulance to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor this afternoon with non life threatening injuries after she crashed a snowmobile.

According to Game Warden Jim Fahey, the girl had been a passenger on a snowmobile operated by her 16-year-old cousin from Orono.

The two had been riding on Pushaw Lake, which is frozen over, when their snowmobile crossed onto the shoreline and went over a snowbank, causing the sled to tip to one side.

The 16-year-old fell off the machine – the girl had been riding in his lap – leaving the girl alone with her hand on the throttle, Fahey said. The snowmobile traveled about 70 yards before it hit a snowbank and a tree.

“She was holding on for dear life,” Fahey said, noting that the girl was too young to realize that she should have been squeezing the brake handle instead. The brake and throttle are on the machine’s handlebars.

The girl was thrown off the snowmobile and lost consciousness, Fahey said. Both the boy and girl were wearing helmets.

No laws were broken in the crash, which took place shortly after 3 p.m., Fahey said.