A 24-year-old man from Ontario was sent to the hospital after a car crash in Death Valley National Park last weekend, sparked by a tarantula sighting.
Two Swiss tourists in a rented camper van “braked suddenly to avoid hitting a tarantula” crossing the road, causing a motorcyclist behind them to crash into the back of the van, according to a press release from the National Park Service (NPS).
Abby Wines, a public affairs officer with the NPS, told Global News that the man riding the motorcycle is from Newburgh, Ontario, but his name was not released for privacy reasons. Newburgh is a small town west of Kingston.
The motorcyclist was injured in the crash and was transported by ambulance to Desert View Hospital in Pahrump, Nevada.
Meanwhile, “the spider walked away unscathed,” according to the press release.
Wines said the man’s injuries were non-life-threatening, but she does not know the outcome of his treatment. (Global News has reached out to Desert View Hospital for an update about his condition.)
“Please drive slowly, especially going down steep hills in the park,” said NPS Superintendent Mike Reynolds, who was the first park official on the scene at the accident. “Our roads still have gravel patches due to flood damage, and wildlife of all sizes are out.”
While they can apparently cause car accidents and can be scary to look at, tarantulas are not typically dangerous to people. Tarantula bites are not deadly to humans, though their venom can cause allergic reactions, according to Mount Sinai Hospital.
“Tarantulas are slow-moving and nonaggressive,” NPS officials write. “A tarantula’s bite is reported to be similar to a bee sting.”
For most of their long lives, tarantulas live underground in burrows. However, they’re most active above ground in fall when males search for a mate.
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