Drivers have warned that someone “will be killed” if a flooded road where two cars crashed yesterday is not fixed.

The vehicles came off the A26 at Beddingham, near Lewes, when they hit sheet ice caused by frozen flood water.

Motorists and residents said there has been a flooding problem “for years” and was an “accident waiting to happen” on the busy commuter route close to the A27 Beddingham roundabout.

They said water running off the fields and blocked drains have caused persistent issues which should have been fixed and drivers said they have made complaints.

Derrick Faires, from Brighton, has been travelling the route for 15 years and warned “someone is going to be killed”.

The 57-year-old director of Elite Foodservice in Newhaven said: “I am very lucky as I know exactly where it is but if you do not know then you are going to skid.

“Even though I am prepared when I hit the ice my car still shifts to the left.

“The water is running off the field. All they have to do is dig a trench and put a drain under the road.

“They have been relying on people to go and put salt up there and on flood warning signs.

“It is ridiculous the amount of water, it is a 15 to 20 foot patch. Now someone has had a crash and it is not really the drivers’ fault.”

In one of the two crashes yesterday morning a Mazda hatchback was left with a shattered windscreen after it left the road and smashed through a fence.

There were not believed to be any serious injuries. The road was reduced to one lane as the flooding water rose again yesterday afternoon.

Gary Chandler, a HGV driver from Eastbourne, uses the road four or five times a day and said the problem was an “accident waiting to happen”.

The 48-year-old said: “We have to get something done about this water problem.

“I could not believe it, going over yesterday morning it was like a skating rink. I don’t know what’s causing it and the floods have been there for months.

“Is it going to take someone getting killed to get it fixed?”

A nearby resident said: “It is a terrible stretch of road, it affects day to day life and it is really dangerous.

“Whenever there is heavy rainfall there is a flood.

“The Highways Agency is always trying to sort it, it is a piece of road constantly undergoing maintenance but I don’t know why as it doesn’t change.”

Another local commuter said: “Even if someone went over it at walking pace I am sure they would skid.”

A spokesman for East Sussex County Council said the stretch of road is the responsibility of the Highways Agency.

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said they are investigating the issue and expect further updates on the cause of the flooding after the weekend.

  • Treacherous conditions hit roads elsewhere in the county yesterday morning as temperatures dipped below freezing.

At 6.30am a Vauxhall Astra car hit a patch of ice near the Yew Tree Inn, Arlington, and overturned.

The driver was unhurt. At around the same time three vehicles collided in North Street, Alfriston, at its junction with Litlington Road, just south of the A27 Drusillas Roundabout.

One of the motorists involved, a woman from Seaford, suffered whiplash injuries, and was treated by paramedics at the scene.

The road was blocked and following a second incident 100 metres away from the first when a car overturned, the road was closed in both directions.

Ditchling Road, over Ditchling Beacon, was closed following a series of collisions due to ice.

On the A22 at Uckfield, near the Blackdown roundabout, a car was reported to have left the road southbound. No one was hurt.