Bull Run Racks Up More Injuries

Seven People Injured In The Fourth Day, Including An American Knocked Unconscious

(AP)  A pack of fighting bulls gored a Spaniard, knocked an American unconscious and injured five other people Thursday in a dash through the streets of Pamplona to the city bullring, officials said.

This year's fourth run through the streets of Pamplona in the annual San Fermin Festival was relatively fast and featured bulls weighing up to 1,540 pounds, which is about as big as fighting bulls can get.

Early in the course one runner apparently just stopped and turned around to face the animals, and was bowled over violently by one of them.

His decision was perhaps the worst thing you can do at the festival, where the cardinal rule for runners is to keep moving, or, in a pinch, hit the ground face-down and stay there until the pack has moved on.

The Navarra regional government said a 31-year-old American was hospitalized, unconscious with a severe head injury, but that he later regained consciousness and was to undergo tests. His name and home town were not released.

It was not immediately clear if he was the man who stopped in mid-run.

A 28-year-old Spaniard was gored in the right thigh and will have to undergo surgery, the government said.

The runs to the city bullring take place at 8 a.m. daily and are the highlight of a centuries-old festival that became world famous with Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises."

Professional matadors fight, and invariably kill, the bulls each afternoon of the festival.

Fourteen runners have died in the running of the bulls since record-keeping began in 1924.

The last fatality from a goring was a 22-year-old American, Matthew Tassio, in 1995. In 2003, a 63-year-old Pamplona native, Fermin Etxeberri, was trampled in the head by a bull and died after spending several months in a coma.

In Wednesday's run an American from California was gored in the buttocks and had to undergo surgery.

On Sunday, a 23-year-old Irishman died after falling from an ancient wall that encircles the old quarter of Pamplona.

[xmanborg]

Seriously WHATEVER

[ramos937]

Hooray for the bulls.....remember where they wind up....just some payback.

[ajmarine111]

Anyone that risks his life to feel alive -

- doesn''''t have much of a life.

Posted by DemWatcher at 02:50 AM : Jul 11, 2008


People do it everyday; sky diving, race cars, mountain climbing, etc., etc............

[demwatcher]

"Can somone tell me why people do this?

Is it to make them feel alive or more of a man, or what?

Posted by AJMarine111 at 02:45 AM : Jul 11, 2008"

Anyone that risks his life to feel alive -

- doesn''t have much of a life.

[ajmarine111]

Can somone tell me why people do this?

Is it to make them feel alive or more of a man, or what?

[lucasnico]

please, Oh God please let bush and cheney try this!!

[demwatcher]

Let''s send the Democrat Congress over to Spain for a vacation.

I''ll supply the red t-shirts.

[marcpcbs]

What country do I go to to celebrate intelligence?

[kuei12]

Why is people getting hurt while stampeeding with bulls news?

[oneworldusa]

"Stupid is as stupid does."

[oneworldusa]

Yeah, this is not news, it never is. It''s the same thing over and over every year. I have no sympathy for people who choose to taunt these beasts (I mean beasts respectfully, as in huge, strong animals with horns that can kick your but_t in a nano-second) and get hurt or killed.

Perhaps it is tradition, but also perhaps it is time to revise the tradition. How about a running of the sloth? Then less people would be hurt and killed.

[sistatee-2009]

I enjoy watching these morons get trampled and gored. I love it!

[piercetheval]

...Oh...and P.S. we drive "Long Horn Cattle"...party on and on and on and on and OooooNnnnn!!!!

[fstop100]

How stupid can humans be?

[piercetheval]

...EXCUSE ME, THAT SHOULD READ "FIESTATIVITIES"...
PARTY ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ONANDONANDONANDONANDOOOOONNNNNNNNnnnnnnn!!!!!

[piercetheval]

...Here in Folsom, California we have a "Cattle Drive" every year just before the 4th of July and the attendant rodeo. We get some fool who gets gored every other year, it''s part of the fiestiavies!
PARTY ON!

[ringading3]

I love to bet on the bulls. They always win.

[jd2408]

I love it when the bulls win !

[irliberal]

GO BULLS! Take out these stupid Darwin Award type people.

[whiskyrocker]

I''d like to see everyone of them ****ing idiots ran over and crushed.