Crashes clog North Tenerife motorway

Two crashes a minute apart on Tenerife’s TF-5 motorway snarled northbound traffic on Friday afternoon, according to 112 Canarias and local media reports. The first was reported at 15:37 at kilometre 22 near La Matanza, where a motorcycle went down in the northbound lanes. A second collision followed at 15:38 at kilometre 5 in the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, also northbound, involving five vehicles. Emergency crews, ambulances and road personnel were sent to both scenes, and one person was reported with minor injuries. ### Where did the two crashes happen? La Matanza and Santa Cruz de Tenerife were the two locations identified in reports published on Friday. El Día, citing 112 Canarias, said the first incident happened at kilometre 22 of the TF-5 near La Matanza in the direction of the island’s north. The second happened one minute later at kilometre 5 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, also in the northbound carriageway. (eldia.es) Kilometre 5 is close to the Santa Cruz end of the motorway, while kilometre 22 is farther up the corridor toward the northern municipalities. The near-simultaneous timing meant disruption hit more than one point on the route at once, based on the sequence reported by 112 Canarias through local outlets. (eldia.es) ### What do authorities say happened in each case? 112 Canarias, as quoted by El Día and Atlántico Hoy, said the first crash involved a motorcycle fall. Neither outlet reported additional official detail on the rider’s condition in that La Matanza incident at the time of publication. Five vehicles were involved in the Santa Cruz collision, according to the same reports. (eldia.es) El Día said one person had been reported with minor injuries, and Atlántico Hoy said emergency resources remained deployed in both areas while authorities worked at the scenes. ### How far did the delays spread? (eldia.es) San Benito in La Laguna was cited by Atlántico Hoy as the point from which queues stretched toward La Matanza after the first crash. El Día described the resulting traffic as “fuertes retenciones,” or heavy delays, on the TF-5, one of Tenerife’s main commuter arteries. (eldia.es) Friday afternoon is one of the busier travel periods on the route linking Santa Cruz with northern towns. Neither 112 Canarias nor the local reports cited an estimate for when traffic would fully return to normal, but both said the incidents were still affecting movement as of late afternoon on May 15. (eldia.es) ### Who responded on the ground? Guardia Civil, ambulances from the Canary Islands health service and road maintenance personnel were sent to the Santa Cruz crash site, El Día reported. Atlántico Hoy said emergency services had been mobilized to different points on the motorway and that the operation remained active in both zones. (eldia.es) One official Canary Islands emergency portal entry published separately on May 15 reported a motorcycle crash in the Tres de Mayo tunnel in Santa Cruz earlier in the day, showing how authorities were already handling other road incidents in the capital before the two later TF-5 crashes. The portal excerpt did not link that earlier tunnel case to the two northbound motorway collisions. (eldia.es) ### Why is the TF-5 so sensitive to disruption? The Canary Islands government has described the TF-5 as one of the corridors with the highest traffic intensity in the archipelago. In a March 4, 2026 statement, the regional government said nine bidders had submitted offers for works to add a third lane between Guamasa and Tenerife North Airport, with a base tender budget of 66.4 million euros including tax. (www3.gobiernodecanarias.org) That project is intended to increase capacity and improve traffic flow in a section the government called one of the island’s most congested. The statement concerned a different stretch from Friday’s crashes, but it underscores the broader pressure on the motorway network that carries traffic between Santa Cruz, La Laguna and the north of Tenerife. (www3.gobiernodecanarias.org) ### What comes next on this road corridor? March 4, 2026 is the latest dated milestone the Canary Islands government has published for the TF-5 expansion effort, with nine offers under review for the third-lane works between Guamasa and Tenerife North Airport. The regional public works department said the project includes remodelling the Guamasa and San Lázaro junctions and building a new direct link to the airport. (www3.gobiernodecanarias.org)