DATELINE–Squaw Valley, Calif.

Head of Eli Lilly unconscious for hours after colliding with tree on the slopes of a Tahoe ski resort. Company’s own anti-depressants may be to blame.

Sidney Taurel , the president and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company, makers of the popular anti-depressant drug Prozac, was seriously injured in a bizarre accident on the slopes of Squaw Valley Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe, California. Taurel was on hand for the debut of the resort’s multi-million dollar Funitel ski lift when he was hurt late Saturday afternoon.

According to eyewitnesses, Taurel was headed down the Cow Patch ski run when he suddenly ran into a tree. The 50 year-old executive, who is a proficient skier and accomplished tennis player, was unable to recall the incident upon regaining consciousness early Sunday morning.

The Cow Patch slope is the most recent addition to the resort’s famously popular runs which include the legendary Headwall, Siberia, Emigrant, Granite Chief, and Solitude. It was completed during the summer of 1998 and was touted as the “widest swath of snow-packed powder” west of Switzerland.

All the more surprising that such a tragic accident could befall a competent skier such as Taurel. A spokesperson for Squaw Valley has expressed sadness and concern over the particular details of Taurel’s crash, confirming that there were no other trees within a 300 foot radius of the accident site.

Carlos Foster, who was on hand at the time of the collision, was equally surprised when he witnessed Taurel suddenly crumple at the foot of a tree halfway down the Cow Patch run. “It was as if the tree jumped out and smacked him,” Foster said, “I had no idea what had happened at first.”

With the growing popularity of snowboarding and other “extreme” outdoor sporting activities, accidents have become a fact of life at the nation’s ski resorts. Major recreational centers have even established medical facilities on site to deal with the broken bones and torn ligaments that befall inexperienced or sometimes intoxicated skiers.

But by all accounts, Taurel was neither of these, and investigators have yet to determine the cause of the accident. If poor slope maintenance and design is found to be at fault, the ski resort could face a multi-million dollar lawsuit and, according to one expert, “some very bad publicity.”

There are reports, however, that Taurel had been experiencing nausea on the day of the accident and appeared to be “very tired” in the words of a ski lift operator who assisted him minutes before the collision. Rumors surfacing from the local hospital where Taurel was initially treated suggest that he may have been on anti-depressants at the time of the accident.

In fact, Taurel’s mishap could spell far greater trouble for the pharmaceutical giant than for the local ski resort. The timing couldn’t be worse for Eli Lilly, Taurel’s employer which earlier this month announced plans to market R-fluoxetine, a purer form of Prozac. Eli Lilly sold over $2.6 billion worth of Prozac to more than 35 million people in over 100 countries in 1997 alone.