Blood biker volunteers slam state of Britain’s roads after hitting Derbyshire pothole

Peter Church, 72, was delivering 21 heel prick blood samples to Sheffield Children's Hospital when his Yamaha FJR1300 hit a seven-inch-deep pot hole near Eckington.

Luckily Peter didn't fall off the vehicle and the samples were still able to be delivered but the bike's wheel rim was bent and its tyre burst - which will cost £1,000 to repair.

He is part of charity Nottinghamshire Blood Bikes, which delivers blood and other vital medical items between hospitals in and around the county for free. Peter and the charity's volunteers are now urging local authorities to do something about the potholes. They are concerned that the samples 'could be destroyed' and lives of the UK's 4,500 volunteer bikers could be endangered by poorly maintained roads.

Peter warned: "I had over 20 heel prick samples on board. If I would have come off the bike, then there's over 20 lives affected by that. The samples would have been destroyed and who knows what would have happened to me?

"Fortunately it didn't and we still managed to get them there. But there will be a point where all emergency services are in the same boat - if you can't see a pot hole, you hit it and then you're in trouble."

Peter, who has volunteered with the charity for a couple of months, says he was on the B6053 near Eckington when he hit the pothole. He says there was 'absolutely no chance' of avoiding the hole because there was that much water on the road.

The charity are now urging people to report potholes, to make their local councils aware of them. But Peter, of Nottingham, sometimes feels like 'nobody seems to care' about the damage that's being caused to vehicles.

He said: "They can be absolutely lethal - I know that motorcyclists have died hitting potholes. Cyclists also have an incredible risk with them and the damage it causes to cars is just beyond belief.

"We travel to quite a few counties and every road we go on, is absolutely awful. It doesn't matter if it's a motorway, an A road or a B road - they are all as bad in places. I don't know what it's going to take for something to be done, but nobody seems to care about the damage that it's causing to vehicles."

Charity committee member James Chantler, 30, is also urging people to report potholes so it will come across as 'more urgent.' He said: "Potholes affects every single road user, so it will affect other groups up and down the country. We are quite lucky that it didn't knock the biker off and that nothing on board was damaged. But it could happen to other groups."

James, of Nottingham, added: "The more people report it, the more urgent it's coming to come across. If 100 people report a pothole, then the council are really aware of it but if nobody reports it, then they will never be aware of it."

Nottingham Blood Bikers do not receive any government funding and rely solely on public donations. Visit https://www.peoplesfundraising.com/donation/nottinghamshire-blood-bikes? to support them.