'Danger road' cuts through Bexhill

But police say it is one of the safest of its kind in some places.

The A259 between Hastings and Eastbourne was given the highest risk rating in the county in a new survey by the AA Motoring Trust and the European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP).

Its score of 111, based on accident and traffic figures, makes it a medium-high risk road.

The route takes in Glyne Gap, De La Warr Road, King Offa Way, Little Common Road and Barnhorn Road.

Road policing inspector Steve Grace said the rating ignores the fact that parts of the 18km rural A-road are the safest around.

He said the A259 cuts through a variety of town and country landscapes, with incidents being high in the former and low in the latter.

But that variety means the road's scope is different to others it may be compared to.

Inspector Grace said: "The nature of that road is that there are urban areas where there are more pedestrians, more junctions and more vehicles and rural parts which are some of the safest locally.

"The survey lumps rural and urban statistics for this road together.

"But urban roads tend to have higher rates of incidents than a main road through a rural area."

The stretch of trunk road between Eastbourne and Hastings takes between 18,500 and 32,000 cars every day.

Some parts of the road are busier than others, accounting for the range in traffic numbers.