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OUR OPINION
The Sisters Rodeo in Sisters, Oregon, made national news over the weekend when a bull named Party Bus jumped the fence into a Saturday night crowd with three, some reports say four, people injured. It appears one woman was directly hit by the bull and thrown in the air. Sisters Rodeo officials report that the three people who were taken to the hospital Saturday night were released by Sunday. Fortunately, rodeo livestock, particularly bulls, don’t escape the arena often. I’ve seen it probably half a dozen times over the more than half century I’ve been involved in rodeo as a spectator, contestant and photographer, including once at Newport in 1992. I’ve seen a bull get into the stands at Seattle’s King Dome.
Fewer spectators get hurt at rodeos than at Major League Baseball games, where balls hit into the stands hurt something like 1,750 people a year, according to a 2022 Cambridge University study.
At Newport in 1992, the bull Bear Swawilla jumped through the fence on the east side of the arena near the announcer’s stand during a Sunday rodeo performance. No spectators were hurt, although rodeo committeeman Phil Early had to get 20 stitches in his arm after crawling through the wire fence to help coral the bull, which was quickly re-penned.
Over the years the Newport Rodeo Committee has done quite a bit of work on the fences. They are taller and considerably more substantial than they were in 1992. The Newport Rodeo has become more safety conscious, with protocols in place to deal with injured contestants, livestock and spectators, as well as escaped livestock.
Still, rodeo, like baseball, is not without risk for spectators. The Cambridge University study found a rise in baseball injuries increasing as cell phone use became more prevalent. At rodeos, people need to stand back from the fence, particularly during the riding events. They need to keep their children back as well.
If a bull does get out of the arena, spectators shouldn’t act the way I saw one guy act at an Inchelium rodeo many years ago. The spectator, who perhaps had had a drink or two, waved his arms to attract the bull’s attention. The bull saw him and charged, running over the guy. After the bull was corralled and the man was lying on the ground shaken up but mostly unhurt, a woman, apparently his wife, came over, checked if he was hurt and then proceeded to slap the heck out of him, exclaiming what did he think he was doing.
Your chances being injured at the Newport Rodeo as a spectator are small but will be reduced further by standing back from the fence and paying attention to what’s going on in the arena.
DON GRONNING IS A FORMER PROFESSIONAL RODEO COWBOYS ASSOCIATION BULL RIDER. HE PUBLISHED NORTHWEST RODEO SCENE, A RODEO NEWSPAPER, FROM 1986-1990.
