ACTION CALL ON A27 CARNAGE

John Ticehurst, operations co-ordinator for the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, told members he had been worried about the situation for some time and was determined to see action taken to have the stretch made safer.

'The A27 is a single carriageway, part of it running between Lewes to Polegate,' he said.

'The issue is that most serious road collisions in the district are taking place on this road.

'We have produced a summary of A27 road traffic collisions we attended.

'Since 2001 there have been 100 accidents, with 10 deaths, between Lewes and Polegate.

'And of those 100 accidents, about 60 took place on the Firle Straight, which included eight deaths.'

One other person was killed near Wilmington and another on Ranscombe Hill, approaching the Firle Straight.

Mr Ticehurst was prompted to take action following the death of a young passenger on the Straight some two months ago.

'Sadly, the number of crashes are increasing each year,' he continued.

'This year alone, there have been 12 incidents, resulting in one death and, if this continues, the number of incidents during 2006 could be as high as 25.

'I'm not saying I have the answers to the problem. Fire, ambulance, police and highway authority officials need to sit down and thrash out a solution.

'We can't let this situation continue.'

While the Crime Reduction Partnership pushes for improvements, its message to drivers is: Make sure you do not become part of these statistics.