Is Transportation Becoming More of a Health Hazard

Jessica Shawcroft
The Paw Print

Trains seem to derail for a number of reasons. Usually it’s because track maintenance lacked, the breaks on the cars were bad, the train was traveling too fast, the engineer fell asleep, the conductor fell asleep, or the weather caused some sort of issue that cannot be overcome. In this odd instance, a train derailed because of millipedes. Think about this for a second. We all know what millipedes are right?
Millipedes have two pairs of legs per segment; expect the first segment behind the head, which does not have any appendages at all. Millipedes can shorten themselves into a ball, or elongate themselves.
They eat decaying leaves and other dead plant matter. For one little millipede to cause a derailment is impossible, but in this case hundreds of millipedes were found on the tracks.
A train in Australia traveling at normal speed, seeing no reason to slow and no danger ahead went over an infestation. As the train crossed the infestation, it crushed the millipedes creating slimy tracks. The train then lost traction and slipped/derailed. The train rear ended another train in Australia. Again, there are plenty of reasons trains derail, but in this circumstance the spokesman for the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia mentioned they are taking the millipedes into account.
This isn’t the first time it’s happened either. In 2009 thousands of millipedes swarmed over a mile of track near Melbourne, causing delays and cancellations. I enjoy trains, I like learning about them as well as learning about mistakes made. I googled the Melbourne derailment and a site came up with listings as far back as 1858.
It seems we’ve learned a lot about railway safety and passenger car movements in the past one hundred and fifty five years. The list starts with a lot of detail and a lot of dead passengers. As the years go on, the death count lowers and the details are slim. Again, I tried to find the incident in 2009 but the list ends with accidents involving no loss of life- an incomplete list. It seems it will remain a mystery.
Has anyone else noticed the increase in train, plane and boat accidents lately? It seems a lot of planes have crashed, lost power, lost a pilot, etc. In the past few months. Trains too; a lot more have been noted to derail with a passenger lost count lately.
The Spain derailment caused a lot of up roar; the engineer sped through a sign and derailed on a curve. Even here in the valley we’ve had a plane crash in the past few months. Something is off with the stars and we seem to be the ones paying for it.  Maybe it’s just me but I feel like every time I turn on the news, something new has happened involving transportation.