ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 14, 1997 TAG: 9703140066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOANNE POINDEXTER THE ROANOKE TIMES
The rodeo's operator says the riders know he won't let anyone ride who has been drinking.
A Moneta man who died after being trampled by a bull had a high level of alcohol in his blood, a Lynchburg medical examiner said Thursday.
Dr. Louis Read, who examined Ronnie Phillipe after his death Feb. 28, said blood samples taken at a Lynchburg hospital showed Phillipe had a blood-alcohol level of 0.157 percent. Since he died about three hours after the accident, his blood-alcohol level could have been as high as 0.217 percent when he was riding the bull, Read said.
The legal limit for driving under the influence in Virginia is 0.08 percent.
Phillipe, 29, was thrown by a bull and trampled while competing in a weekly rodeo in Bedford County, but he got up and walked out of the arena, refusing first aid. He collapsed about 20 minutes later and was transported to the hospital, where he died from internal injuries.
Read said the alcohol may have contributed to the accident but didn't contribute to the death.
Bedford County sheriff's Lt. John McCane said there had been no indication that Phillipe was drinking before the event and that no alcohol is served at the Jerk Down Rodeo where Phillipe was competing.
"If he had been drinking, he did a good job of hiding it," said Darrell Stahlman, who runs the rodeo.
He said he had spoken to Phillipe and his wife had hugged him before the ride, and they didn't smell any alcohol.
Stahlman said he knew Phillipe drank occasionally, but Phillipe and other riders knew that he wouldn't let anyone who had been drinking ride the bulls.
"I had told him before he couldn't ride if he had been drinking," Stahlman said. "There is no drinking on the premises."
Phillipe, who had been riding bulls about two years, had attended a bull-riding school and was wearing a protective vest.
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