Dangers in the running of the bulls of Pamplona
The historical evolution of the bull-running seems to have made it an ever-more dangerous activity. The number of risky situations (such as the pile-ups) the number of injured and dead, seems to increase as time goes by. Until the double row of fencing was set up, it was even dangerous for the spectators, as it was not unusual for a bull to break through the one line of fencing.
Up to 1910 there is no evidence of anyone having been killed in the run. But that year a young man from Falces (Navarra) was injured and he dead six months later. Since then there have been some fourteen runners who left their lives on the cold slabs of the narrow streets of the run.
One of the most tragic runs took place in 1947, when, on the 10th of July, the same bull, "Semillero", killed two people during the same run. Another "double killing" took place on the 13th of July 1980 when "Antioquio" caught his first victim by the horns at the Town Hall and carried him up to Mercaderes street. Later, in the bull-ring he killed a second person with a mortal stab to the stomach.
It seems clear that these mortalities have begun to increase at the same rate that the "encierro" has become an ever-bigger spectacle for an ever-greater number of people.
The injured people
The same macabre statistics can be seen for the number of injured which continue to increase year by year. By far the largest number are caused by contusions but serious injuries from stabs seem to be increasing and some of these are dangerously close to being mortal. One such case was the American, Stephen Townsend in 1984 who was lifted by the horns of an Osborne bull and shaken round before being tossed aside. The Swede, Torly Urban was also lifted by the horns of "Entrometido" in 1991, just when he tried to escape through the fencing, and he was tossed about on the horns of the bull for more than ten seconds.
On these occasions only a super-efficient ambulance service saved their lives as the loss of blood suffered by them is mortal by necessity.