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Fatigue caused by "unusual" circumstances involving spider bites contributed to a train crash in Western Australia's north earlier this year, the federal transport safety watchdog has found.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has today released its report into a "low speed" crash at BHP's Finucane Island iron ore facility, near Port Hedland, about 1,600 kilometres north of Perth.
The collision occurred early on March 2, when two trains carrying iron ore were waiting to be unloaded.
No one was injured and no damage was reported as a result.
An aerial view of the Finucane Island facility at Port Hedland. (Supplied: Google Earth, annotated by the ATSB)
ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said one of the train drivers, who had 30 years of experience, had set the train in motion "with the intention of stopping", however, mistakenly failed to do so.
With no brakes applied, the moving vehicle crashed into the stationary train.
That train was pushed forward about 40 metres and the entire incident lasted 38 seconds.
Mr Mitchell said the fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) train driver's "poor quality sleep" contributed to the collision.
"The driver reported that they were awoken by the collision, and thought they must have had a microsleep," he said.
"It was dark at the time … and it was their fourth consecutive night shift."
Mr Mitchell said the driver was working with a "degraded level of alertness".
WA's Port Hedland is one of the largest bulk export ports in the world. (ABC News: Charlie Mills)
Spider bites partly to blame
The ATSB report detailed the "unusual set of circumstances" that contributed to a lack of sleep, including the driver receiving treatment for two separate white-tail spider bites.
Three months before the incident, the driver had been sleeping in Port Hedland workforce accommodation and was bitten by a white-tailed spider.
The driver was assessed at a local medical centre before returning home to Sydney where they had surgery.
Six weeks later their GP cleared them to work.
However, after they returned to work in January, the driver was bitten by another white-tailed spider and again returned to Sydney for more surgery and rehabilitation.
Two bites from a white-tailed spider are said to have affected the driver's sleep. (File photo) (Supplied: Wikimedia Commons)
Mr Mitchell said upon returning to work after the second spider bite, the driver began to experience panic attacks and stress.
"Fearing another bite, the driver frequently sprayed insecticide in their locomotive cabs and, including waking up to do so, their bedroom," Mr Mitchell said.
The report found that while the FIFO worker had adequate opportunities to sleep, stress affected their quality of sleep.
The driver had also been sleeping with the light on, which the report said had further affected their sleep quality.
BHP improving worker fatigue
Since the incident, BHP has taken action to better manage worker fatigue and change its trains' vigilance system, according to the report.
"BHP reviewed the fatigue risk periods for its FIFO rail operations driver rosters and increased the number of fatigue assessments during each rotation," the report stated.
"These assessments are conducted face-to-face with the on-shift supervisor or coordinator at each depot location."
The report stated BHP was also looking to trial an interactive fatigue assessment tool through a mobile app that could improve the quality of fatigue assessments.
That trial was scheduled to commence in November this year.
BHP has been contacted for comment.