A BUSY road in Taunton used daily by scores of schoolchildren has been branded one of the worst to cross in Britain in a competition.

Staplegrove Road was one of 14 "nightmare" roads in England, Wales and Northern Ireland named and shamed by youngsters and was runner-up in the South-West.

It was put forward by seven-year-old Asia Harvey, who is fed up with having to charge blindly across the busy road with her family on her way to school.

Her mother, Liz, said she feels she is trusting her and her three children's lives to luck when they rush over Staplegrove Road to Chip Lane on their way to North Town Primary School.

"We just have to run for our lives across the road," said Mrs Harvey, whose other children are Gabriel, five, and Louis, one.

"You have to actually get into the road to see if any traffic is coming, and by then the cars are already upon you.

"It's not a good way of teaching your children to cross the road.

"There are lots of schoolchildren along this road all making the same journey and there are always near misses."

Asia entered Staplegrove Road in the competition, run by Transport 2000, which aims to reduce the impact of traffic, and Living Streets, which champions pedestrians, after her mother heard about it on the radio.

The family feel unable to walk to a crossing near French Weir Avenue because the pavement is so narrow.

"The road is so dangerous," she said. "We're crossing into three lines of traffic on a bend with very poor vision.

"And because the traffic on our side is heading out of town, many drivers speed up and go over the 30mph limit.

"Using Chip Lane and crossing with the lollipop lady near the King's Arms is the safest way to school, but we'd like to see a crossing put in by the cemetery just down from us."

A Somerset County Council spokeswoman said highways officers would give Staplegrove Road "every consideration, as we would with every site we look at".

"We wholeheartedly support the campaign to raise awareness about children crossing roads -- we can all do our bit to help," she added.

"The council will engineer improvement where it can -- it will give pedestrians training where it can.

"We are all pedestrians at some time and every driver should think very carefully when driving near pedestrians."