Each year during the second week of July, Spain holds its annual Running of the Bulls. There are usually a few injuries, mostly because when you get a bunch of people who are drunk on red wine running around with 1,000lb. beasts, there's bound to be a couple run-ins. Most of the time, however, the injuries are not fatal. But this year, for the first time in fourteen years, one of the participants suffered a fatal wound.

A rogue bull gored a young Spaniard in the neck as he tried to run for cover beneath a wooden barrier, sliding under it feet first. The 1,130-pound bull named Capuchino had strayed from the pack, spooked and began charging at anything that moved.

The young man, 27-year-old Daniel Jimeno Romero, probably would have survived if he had dove head first instead of feet first. He was the son of a Pamplona native, and an experienced bull runner.

Romero was rushed to the hospital in cardiac arrest and underwent surgery, but died soon after, said the Spanish government.

There are eight planned runs this year. In the fourth run, at least nine people have been injured so far. Two were Americans in their 60's, one Londoner, and another man from Argentina.

Despite the death this year, the party and running with the bulls continued. A death has never suspended the half-mile dash from a holding pen to the city's bullring. Six bulls run in the morning, and once they make it to the bullring, they face off against matadors and the prospect of almost certain death in the afternoon.

Romero's death was only the 15th since they began keeping records in 1924. A moment of silence was to be observed yesterday in his memory. Romero was from Alcala de Henares, a town just outside of Madrid.

The last fatality at the running of the bulls was in 1995. 22-year-old American Matthew Tassio made a fatal mistake - after falling, instead of staying on the ground and waiting for the animals to pass, he stood up and a bull's horn hit him right in the chest.

Legend has it that those who die at the hands of the bull in the annual fest are automatically granted entrance to Heaven. This stems from the believe that if one dies while honoring a saint - in this case Saint Saturnin of Toulouse, who died at the hands of pagan priests who tied him by the feet to a bull which dragged him around town until the rope broke - he or she also earns the status of a martyr and are assured admittance to the Kingdom of God.