A Devon man is planning to sue the county council after he became the victim of a pothole in Exeter that had already put two other riders in hospital.

Lee Bingham, 43, was on his way to collect his son from school in October last year when he went over the handlebars after hitting the hole on Pinhoe Road.

He was knocked unconscious by the crash and woke to find himself surrounded by paramedics in an ambulance, according to Adam Walmesley of the Express and Echo.

He was treated for minor head and shoulder injuries at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and his £1,000 road bike was declared “unrepairable” by a local bike shop.

Devon County Council has refused to accept liability for the crash.

But on August 20 two other cyclists ended up in hospital after crashing in the same spot.

John Thacker, 72 was injured when he came off his road bike and in hospital met a young woman who had apparently been injured in the same location just an hour earlier.

Mr Bingham has vowed to fight for compensation payments to all three pothole victims and is prepared to take his own case to court.

“I am building-up a negligence case against the council,” he said.

“The road surface should have been impeccable in the summer. I’d like to know why nothing was done about the pothole between August and October.”

Mr Bingham took pictures and measurements of the hole, and is contacting local councillors and businesses in an effort to gather as much information as possible about the state of the road.

A council spokesman said: “We cannot comment on individual cases.”

“Devon County Council is very good at promoting cycling, But unless it repairs the roads properly, people will be put off cycling,” Mr Bingham added.

Potholes can be reported via the Fill That Hole site and its associated iPhone app.

Update: As commenter allaboutadam writes below, this hole's tally of crashes is at least four.