adminAn enormous infestation of millipedes could have caused a crash between two trains in Western Australia. The crash happened when a train arriving into a station at Clarkson, 25 miles north of Perth, slammed into a stationary one. It resulted in six passengers being treated for stiff necks following the crash on Tuesday.
But it has since emerged that the crash could have happened after hundreds of Black Portuguese millipedes were found squashed in a slippery mess on the track.
“Millipedes are one of the factors we are going to take into account,” David Hynes, spokesman at the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia, said.
“What happened in previous instances is trains which were travelling at speed have gone over an infestation, crushed them and made the tracks slimy.
“The train loses traction and the train has slipped,” Hynes said.
The millipedes are attracted to moist environments and are seen as invasive pests at high population levels.
In 2009, thousands of them overran 1,2 miles of track, causing train delays and cancellations near Melbourne in southeast Australia.
The Black Portuguese millipede is native to Portugal and was accidentally introduced into Australia where it has since become an invasive pest.
Londile Moyo
Bongani Ndlovu