Three of Sussex's major roads have been declared among the worst in the South for safety in a list of shame published today.

The A21, A259 and A26 in Sussex have been given a single-star rating by the AA for their potential danger to motorists.

Drivers using these routes are more than twice as likely to have accidents as they are on roads scoring the national average.

Analysts studied crash data from the past three years to compile the figures.

James Bond star Desmond Llewelyn was one of almost 300 fatalities on the county's roads during that period.

Mr Llewelyn, 85, from Bexhill, died in a head-on collision on the A27 in December 1999. The actor, who played gadget man Q in 17 Bond films, crashed while attempting to overtake another car.

That stretch of road - between Eastbourne and Lewes - received a two-star rating, far from worst in the county.

Another Sussex road, the A283 from the A24 to Shoreham, was also rated two-star in the study, which ranks roads from zero to four stars in order of increasing safety.

The AA-led European Road Assessment Programme (Euro-ROP) classified more than 800 roads across the UK using data from the past three years in the 18-month study.

Another 2,000 roads in three other countries - the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain - were also rated in terms of potential risk.

The AA said the study would allow highways authorities and engineers to compare similar roads and identify hidden killers.

The motoring organisation said even simple improvements to stretches which performed worse than average could save 2,400 death or serious injuries a year in the UK.

The results of the survey make disturbing reading for Sussex motorists.

In East and West Sussex, fatalities for 2001 were at a three-year high.

The A21, from the A229 to Hastings - the worst road in Sussex and 38th worst in the UK, according to the AA - had 160 crashes involving death or serious injury for every billion vehicle kilometres travelled.

The national average is 62.

Overall, there were 48 crashes involving death or serious injury on the road, which is used by 13,000 vehicles a day, in the past three years.

John Dawson, AA policy director, said road safety improvements had not matched safety progress in cars.

He said: "We have to make roads more forgiving - everyday human error shouldn't carry a death sentence.

"People should not die on major routes because basic protection is absent from entirely predictable collisions, such as unfenced roadside objects."

Official Sussex Police figures show there were 42,220 reported car crashes across the county from November 1998 to October 2001.

Some 272 of those involved one or more deaths and there were more than 24,000 casualties.

In East Sussex, the A26 between Uckfield and Newhaven was identified as the 109th worst road in the country.

East Sussex County Council said in a statement: "The statistics are based on slightly out of date figures as they use data from 1997 to 1999.

"Therefore they do not fully take account of improvements that have been made in the last two years."

Councillor Tony Reid, East Sussex County Council's lead member for transport and environment, described road safety as a priority.

However, as major trunk roads, most of the A26, A21, A27 and A259 come under the responsibility of the Highways Agency.

Staff, bracing themselves for potential bad publicity in the wake of today's report, were reluctant to comment on individual roads.

But one senior Highways Agency officer said the likes of the A21 and A26, which pass through areas of outstanding natural beauty, could not be easily upgraded because of environmental concerns.

He said: "The A26 in particular is an old-fashioned single carriage road. It is not a road which has been upgraded and there is very little we can do.

"The safest roads are motorways because they are built to very high specifications without junctions. Roads like this, by comparison, are tight, winding and with many junctions."

He said improvements in signs and lines had been made and accident clusters were constantly evaluated to see if safety improvements could be made.

The Highways Agency said in a statement: "Safety is a high priority for the Highways Agency and we welcome this initiative to alert drivers to the need to take care while using the strategic road network.

"The agency's network is one of the safest in the world. Since 1998 the number of those killed and seriously injured on these roads has been reduced by more than 400.

"But one death is one too many. The Government's ten-year plan for transport sets the target of a one-third reduction on the strategic road network by 2010 of the number of people killed or seriously injured.

"We are working to achieve a further reduction of at least 400 casualties by 2004/5."