Canary road deaths fall, but Gran Canaria has already recorded 15

In San Bartolomé de Tirajana on Gran Canaria, a 25-year-old pedestrian was struck and killed by a vehicle. The 112 emergency call centre received the call at around 11.35 pm on Friday; the authorities stated that the accident took place on Avenida de Italia.

Two ambulances were dispatched, but on arrival the paramedics could only confirm the man’s death; he had succumbed to his serious injuries. The area was secured by the local police and the Policía Nacional, who also took charge of the subsequent investigation. This is according to the incident report from the Canary Islands Government.

According to incident reports from the 112 emergency call centre, this is the third time a pedestrian has been hit by a vehicle in San Bartolomé de Tirajana since the start of the year. The local council had already recorded a fatal road accident on 29 August. Across Gran Canaria as a whole, the number of reported road deaths is now higher than it was a year ago.

Gran Canaria: More road deaths than last year

This year, the 112 emergency call centre on Gran Canaria has reported 15 deaths in road traffic accidents, including Friday’s incident. In the same period last year, the figure stood at 13. However, only cases reported by the centre itself are counted; not every fatality is recorded there. Before this, there had been fatal accidents on 13 October in Arucas, on 29 August in San Bartolomé de Tirajana and on 1 August in Mogán, as well as on 9 July and 26 June in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

The DGT Transport Authority paints a different picture for the Canary Islands as a whole: as of 5 November, it had recorded 37 road deaths, 19.6 per cent fewer than in the same period last year, when there were 46. However, the DGT only records rural roads. Figures from the Statistical Office ISTAC for 2024 show how large a share urban traffic accounts for. Of the 69 road deaths in the Canary Islands, 23 occurred in urban traffic and 46 on rural roads; in addition, there were 5,401 people injured in 3,857 accidents.