A 24-year-old man loses his life after being cornered by a bull in an alley and another man dies after several days hospitalized
The ‘bous al carrer’ have claimed two new fatalities in a 24 hour span In the Valencian community. A 71-year-old resident of Almedíjar (Castellón), Miguel P., died in the early hours of Saturday to Sunday after spending several days hospitalized for the goring of a capon bull. On the night of the same Sunday, a young 24-year-old runner from Almansa lost his life after being run over by another horned during the bullfights of Vallada (Valencia).
Adrian MF was seen cornered and without escape in a narrow alley within the route, around 20 hours. The animal turned him and ran over him, knocking him unconscious. Although he apparently had no external injuries when he was transferred by emergency ambulance to the Lluís Alcanyís hospital in Xàtiva, the fan suffered serious injuries irreversible internal that affected his spleen and that were fatal as a result of the strong impacts received in the chest. He died in the health center shortly after arriving, without the medical professionals being able to do anything to save him.
The Vallada City Council decreed a day of official mourning and suspended the bullfighting night on Sunday and the heifers scheduled for Monday morning, although in the afternoon the bullfighting acts resumed normally and the rest of the programming of the patron saint festivities. At noon, dozens of neighbors joined the municipal corporation, the security forces and the festeras to an emotional minute of silence in memory of the deceased and in solidarity with his family who silenced the nerve center of the ‘bous al carrer’ in the town. The dismay at the death of the young man also moved to the town where he lived. Although a native of Hellín, Adrián lived in Almansa, where he had studied at the José Conde García secondary school. That day he had decided to travel to Vallada to experience his passion for ‘bous al carrer’.
dismay and regret
The rapid action of the health services present in the bullfighting tour could not prevent the death of the young man. The mayor of Vallada, Mª José Tortosa, broke her voice yesterday every time she gave explanations about what happened, confessing her “desolation” for the “hard news”. Tortosa defended the diligence with which the ambulance took the wounded man to the hospital and expressed the consternation and sorrow felt in the town over the “sad misfortune” that occurred on the first day of the official festivities in a town where the ‘bous al carrer’ have a long tradition and a massive following. An “unfortunate incident” that “has brought a misfortune that no one expected,” said the mayor. “The bull turned an alley, hooked him (the young man) with his snout and ran over him because he had no room to pass,” she said, emphasizing the “bad luck“that surrounded the event.
The neighbor who died in Almedíjar, meanwhile, had been the subject of a grab from behind in the running of the bulls on Wednesday the 17th, along with an existing thief at the beginning of the route. According to an eyewitness who was nearby, when the animals left, Miguel P., very fond of bullfighting, ran to enter the boardwalk, but about a meter from him, the bull caught him from behind, hitting him a strong blow that what threw against a fence, falling to the ground where the bull gored him repeatedly, although he did not suffer open antler wounds since the animal’s horns were very blunt. As this newspaper has learned, the man suffered the fracture of two vertebrae and of the pelvis as well as of various ribs.
The wounded man was treated by the medical services of the square and transferred to a hospital where he has not been able to recover. The consistory decreed three days of mourning and offered his full support to the family.