A Yale student was hit by a pickup truck Tuesday afternoon and taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, police officials said.

New Haven Police Department spokeswoman Bonnie Winchester said the accident occurred as the student was crossing the intersection of Sachem Street and Prospect Street at about 1 p.m. Though the student’s name has not been released, Yale Police Department Lt. Michael Patten said the student is male.

Although no details regarding the student’s condition are currently available, Patten said the student’s injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

“He was on a stretcher, and they were transporting him with an ambulance,” he said. “He seemed to have some leg injuries, but it didn’t look too bad.”

Students who witnessed the incident said they saw several different emergency units respond to the accident.

“There was a fire truck, an ambulance and an SUV that was pulled over in front of the parking lot,” Elissa Berwick ’09 said.

While Deputy Secretary Martha Highsmith said the accident is unfortunate, she said she does not believe that it indicates the intersection is unsafe. Factors such as poor weather might have caused the accident, she said.

Still, several students said they thought the accident could have resulted from the layout of streets on Science Hill. Kyle Mandsager ’08, who said he witnessed a similar accident in the Science Hill area a few months ago, said there are several obstructions at the Sachem-Prospect intersection that prevent drivers from seeing pedestrians walking on the sidewalk.

Highsmith said that if more accidents occur in the area, Yale will begin to explore ways of improving area safety.

“There are many things we do to try to make an intersection safer,” she said. “Sometimes, we have a police officer stationed at these intersections during particularly busy times of the day.”

In addition to increasing police presence in high-traffic areas, Highsmith said the University works with the city to install crosswalks and traffic lights. If these measures are ineffective, she said, the YPD might also use a radar detector that displays the speed of vehicles as they pass. The detector, she said, has proved to be the most effective deterrent for speeding motorists.

The incident is the first pedestrian accident involving Yale students reported this semester. On Dec. 14, during last semester’s exam week, Sonya Bonnin ’06 and Joe Fahrendorf ’06 were hospitalized after being struck by a minivan on the corner of Edgewood Avenue and Park Street.