A 24-year-old motorcycle driver hit the back of a camper after the vehicle carrying tourists from Switzerland braked suddenly. The accident occurred in the famous Death Valley in California. As it turned out, the car made a sudden maneuver to avoid hitting the tarantula crossing the road. The injured motorcyclist was taken to hospital.
The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon in Death Valley National Park in California. The government agency National Park Service (NPS) reported the incident. A Swiss couple traveling in a camper braked suddenly so as not to run over a tarantula crossing the road. Then a 24-year-old Canadian on a motorcycle hit the rear of the vehicle. they were traveling in, NPS said in a press release on its website on Sunday. It went on to say that the motorcyclist was taken to a hospital in Pahrump, Nevada, and the spider “came out (of the accident – ed.) unscathed.” The services did not indicate the condition of the 24-year-old. It is also not known what species the tarantula is. Superintendent Mike Reynolds, who was the first NPS officer on the scene, issued a plea for drivers to be careful. “Please drive slowly, especially when going down steep hills in the park,” he said.
Tarantulas – are they a threat?
According to the NPS, tarantulas can live up to 25 years and spend most of their long lives in underground burrows. “People see them most often in autumn, when 8-10-year-old males leave their burrows in search of a partner,” we read in the release. It emphasized that tarantulas move slowly and are not aggressive, and that their bite resembles a bee sting and is not fatal to humans.
Main photo source: Angel DiBilio/Shutterstock