A 15-year-old boy has been left with cuts and bruises after he cycled over a four-inch pothole and was thrown off his bike.

Toby Wheatcroft was riding on Back O’ the Fell Road in Grange-over-Sands when he hit the hazard, which was four inches deep.

He said: “I was biking along, expecting to be fine going through all of the puddles and focusing more on the road ahead.

"I then went through this one puddle which had a pothole in it and threw me off. I was then on the side of the road with my bike on top of me.”

CONCERN: Toby Wheatcroft, 15, was injured while riding his bike after hitting a pothole

CONCERN: Toby Wheatcroft, 15, was injured while riding his bike after hitting a pothole

Toby’s dad, Dave Wheatcroft, revealed his son was 'shaken up' afterwards and spent more than £180 repairing his bike.

They said that more potholes had opened up along Back O’ the Fell Road and across the area in the past eight months.

And they called for Cumbria County Council to take action as they believe the potholes could cause an even more serious incident in the future.

Toby said: “I got off quite lightly in terms of injuries because it could have gone a lot worse. It would be a shame to see something happen that could potentially affect someone for the rest of their life so it needs sorting out.”

INJURED:

INJURED:

Dave added: “He could have gone under a tractor or in the line of a car. We have noticed ourselves in the past eight months that because of a general lack of maintenance and repair that quite a few potholes have opened up across the road. It’s only a narrow, single-track road, but it still needs to be maintained.”

Councillor Keith Little, Cumbria County Council's cabinet member for highways and transport pledged to take action 'as soon as possible'.

DEEP:

DEEP:

“I am really sorry to hear about this incident and hope the young man makes a full recovery," he said. "Unfortunately, our network is getting to be in a pretty poor state at the moment due to the wet weather and then very cold and freezing weather. That pothole is what we would class as a category one defect, meaning that someone is likely to have an incident – and therefore we would look to attend to that as soon as possible."