Campaigners call for action after fatal crash on A267
Sarah Jones, 46, is part of the A267 Road Safety Group - a campaign advocating for the implementation of safety measures on the road due to multiple incidents. In October, the community was shaken by a fatal crash on the A267 at Cross in Hand[1], near Heathfield, involving a car and a sewage tanker. A 32-year-old man who was driving the Ford Focus was declared dead at the scene.
His passengers, all from East London, were left fighting for their lives in hospital with serious injuries. The lorry driver sustained minor injuries. Sarah, who lives on the same road the crash happened in, said that the incident inspired her to take action before others suffered the same fate.
She said: "It happened at the top of my driveway. 
There was another air ambulance landing nearby. "That really proved that what we were doing was needed." The group is pushing for action on five different "blackspots" along the stretch of road - the A267/A272 junction, the Isenhurst Cross in Hand junction, Wellbrook Hill, Mayfield Flat and a stretch of the A267 heading north.
Sarah reported that the Cross in Hand spot has been nicknamed locally as "coffin corner" due to the number of serious incidents there. She said: "How long do we have to wait before more things happen? "There are going to be more collisions in the meantime.
As a mother of three, you want to make the road safer for everybody who uses it. "I do not want to have to drive on that road in fear of being hurt." The group is working with the parish councils to improve the safety of the area, who Sarah says have been "extremely supportive", as well as local speed watch groups and the deer warden. The A267 has been identified by East Sussex County Council as a location for speed limit reductions within its speed management programme, however Sarah said issues on the road were not isolated to speed. In December, Nusrat Ghani, MP for Wealden, backed the group in its efforts and vowed to advocate for traffic calming measures and more warning signs on the road. "I have made representations to Sussex Police and requested that data on the number of incidents and reports of near misses is shared with the parish council, so that together we can explore opportunities for introducing traffic calming measures and more warning signs along the A267. "I would like to thank Councillor Michael Lunn and the A267 Road Safety Group for their work on the matter and I will continue working with them and our parish councils, district council, East Sussex Highways and Sussex Police on what more can be done to help make the A267 safer." A spokeswoman for East Sussex County Council said: "We are aware of the concerns raised about the A267. "The road was included in our recent detailed assessment of the county's A and B roads as part of the council's new Speed Management Programme. This process has identified 16 sites, including three sections of the A267, which could benefit from speed limit reductions or measures to make the existing speed limit more effective. "Public consultations on the introduction of lower speed limits at the three locations on the A267, including at Wellbrook Hill between Mayfield and Five Ashes, the A267 between Five Ashes and Cross in Hand, and the A267 south of Horam towards Coggers Cross, will commence in 2026 as part of the second year of the programme. "A request to undertake a large-scale junction improvement scheme at the junction of the A267 with the A272 at Hadlow Down, including either a roundabout or traffic signals at this junction was assessed in May 2024 against the priorities set out in the Local Transport Plan. As a result of this assessment, the A267/A272 junction did not achieve the benchmark score for potential inclusion in the council's programme of local transport improvements. "The county council has a finite amount of funding to develop local transport improvements, including road safety schemes, and we need to ensure that we target our resources to those schemes which will be of greatest benefit to our local communities."
References