In the past decade, about 185 people have died on the pothole-strewn five km stretch in Ambernath, where traffic constable Sanjeev Patil lost his life on Tuesday. Traffic police statistics accessed by mid-day reveal that the road has been the most accident-prone, injuring over 427 on the stretch. Traffic cops have been sending letters to the Ambernath Municipal Corporation for the last few years, telling them to fill potholes urgently, but the civic body has allegedly not taken any action. The data also mentions that people suffered serious injuries in 590 of the reported accidents. In 2009, 18 deaths were reported. In 2010, the toll stood at 16, in 2011 it was at 17, while 19 deaths were reported in 2012, 15 in 2013, 19 in 2014, 19 in 2015, 14 in 2016, 16 in 2017, 15 in 2018 and until June this year, 17 deaths were caused by road accidents on the stretch.

Will lead to an accident

Traffic police officials said the road has caused a total of 185 deaths and injured 427 in 599 reported cases of road accidents. Amongst these 99 per cent of accidents have occurred due to bad road conditions, skidding bikes and people being crushed by vehicles. mid-day has a copy of the 2018 and 2019 letters sent by the traffic police to AMC, asking them to repair potholes on the stretch. In the letters, Prashant Satere and Sunil Jadhav, former and current police inspectors of the traffic police respectively, have stated, "Outside Ambernath east and west railway station and on the Kalyan-Badlapur road, several potholes have been spotted at seven major points of the road. This condition of the roads will lead to an accident. School buses, parents who carry their children, women drivers and so many others are facing several issues while riding on this road. They slow down to avoid the pothole or damage to their vehicle and it leads to traffic congestion. Therefore, please inspect the road and kindly repair it." In response to the letters, AMC seems to be passing the buck to other authorities.