Tarantula causes crash in Death Valley National Park WSOC TV
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A wildlife sighting caused a crash Saturday at Death Valley National Park.
It wasn’t a bighorn sheep or a desert tortoise that prompted a driver to suddenly hit the brakes. It was a tarantula crossing the road.
A Swiss couple was traveling on California State Route 190, east of Towne Pass, when they spotted the tarantula, according to park officials. They immediately stopped their rented camper van, causing a Canadian man on a motorcycle behind them to hit the vehicle, officials said.
An ambulance took the motorcyclist, 24, to a hospital with injuries that park spokesperson Abby Winds described as “non-life-threatening,” according to the Los Angeles Times. The couple from Switzerland and the spider were uninjured.
Tarantulas spend most of their time in underground burrows, though male spiders leave in the fall to search for mates. Park officials described the arachnids as “slow-moving and nonaggressive.”
“A tarantula’s bite is reported to be similar to a bee sting, and is not deadly to humans,” officials said.
The crash prompted a warning from Superintendent Mike Reynolds, the first National Parks System employee to respond to the scene Saturday.
“Please drive slowly, especially going down steep hills in the park,” he said. “Our roads still have gravel patches due to flood damage, and wildlife of all sizes are out.”
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