Potholes are costing motorists millions of pounds and claiming lives with 73,000 breakdowns caused by crumbling and cracked roads. This averages out to about 1,400 a day, according to AA figures.

An RAC estimate puts the cost to motorists of pothole repairs at more than £130million per year.

AA president Edmund King told MailOnline: “Drivers, and those on two wheels or indeed two feet, are totally fed up with the potholed state of local roads.

“For those on two wheels the consequences can be much more serious, with several coroners citing potholes as a cause of death for cyclists.”

Retired music teacher, Harry Colledge, who was 84, died when his front wheel got stuck in a nine-inch deep pothole and he fell from his bike at Winmarleigh, Lancashire, on January 2. He died in hospital of his injuries.

His widow, Valerie Colledge, said central and local governments need to do more to protect people riding bikes on damaged rural roads.

She told the Telegraph: “Potholes are a horrendous problem for cyclists. Harry’s front wheel got stuck in a nine inch deep pothole. A local farmer told me she had complained to the council about the pothole, but nothing was done.

“Roads here are in a terrible condition. The lane where Harry died is used by heavy milk trucks, tractors, and lorries, so often subsides.”

Figures from the RAC show its roadside staff attended nearly a quarter (23 percent) more breakdowns where potholes were likely to blame in the last three months of 2022 compared to the previous three months.

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RAC staff went out to an average of 20 breakdowns a day between October and the end of the year, a total of more than 1,800. These were for faults including damaged shock absorbers, broken suspension springs and distorted wheels.

This was up from 16 a day over the previous quarter (1,462) and was the highest number of pothole-related breakdowns seen in the fourth quarter of the year since 2019.

The RAC warned in January that more potholes would appear over the next few months due to the amount of rain seen both before and after sub-zero temperatures hit the UK in December.

National Highways is responsible for filling in potholes on motorways and major A-roads while local authorities deal with repairs on all other routes.

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But councils say they there aren’t enough funds to address the problem.

Conservative MP Greg Smith, a member of the Commons Transport Committee, said the tax drivers pay should be used to make sure roads are safe.

He told MailOnline: “It should be seen as a point of fairness for everybody who drives that the tax they pay should first and foremost be used to ensure the roads they drive on are safe and usable.”

Nicholas Lyes, the RAC’s Head of Roads Policy, told the same publication that ring-fencing 2p a litre from fuel duty could end the anguish suffered by millions of drivers.

The Government has said it is investing more than £5billion over 2020 to 2025 into highway maintenance.

This includes a pothole fund announced in the 2020 Budget.

But Labour Party analysis in 2021 showed councils across the UK would lose out on £375million promised by the Government to fix potholes in 2022.

Councils were expected to receive £1.5billion a year in Government funding to repair roads but just £1.125billion was committed in 2021-22.

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