Photo/Illutration A sports car is engulfed in flames on the Inner Circular Route of the Metropolitan Expressway in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on Jan. 18. Police said a member of the “Roulette Gang” likely caused the accident. (Provided by a witness)

Tokyo police said they are enhancing their crackdown on the “Roulette Gang” street racers who have increasingly used the emptier Metropolitan Expressway at night during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are determined to render dangerous driving impossible,” said a senior official of the Metropolitan Police Department’s expressway traffic police corps. “The Metropolitan Expressway is not a racing circuit. Reckless drivers can claim the lives of other people instead of merely risking their own. They should never behave that way.” 

Members of the Roulette Gang who speed along circular roads started using the Metropolitan Expressway around 1990, but their numbers surged in central Tokyo in 2020, police said.

Although fewer motorists are using the expressway at night during the pandemic, the number of 110 emergency calls to police concerning accidents and dangerous driving there totaled 529 in 2020, up by 269 from 2019. The number remained high at 413 in 2021, police said.

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Dozens of sports cars and other vehicles likely from the “Roulette Gang” at the Tatsumi No. 1 Parking Area along the Metropolitan Expressway in Tokyo’s Koto Ward on Jan. 22 (Ryo Oyama)

The racers, who barrel down roads and suddenly change lanes, scrape against side walls, crash into other gang members and even cause hazards for ordinary motorists, police said.

Three serious accidents apparently involving Roulette Gang members were reported on the expressway in January.

A 20-year-old male college student was killed in a multiple-vehicle accident on Jan. 5. Another male university student, 20, suffered a broken neck and chest bones in a fiery single-vehicle accident on Jan. 18.

Police have also received complaints about noise and bad behavior at parking areas.

The MPD took action against Roulette Gang members for traffic violations and illicit car upgrades in 100 cases last year.

The new crackdown program consists of four pillars: additional deployment of the mobile Orbis speed monitoring system; bolstered patrols of parking areas by plainclothes officers; daily inspections at parking areas; and the use of flashing lights on police cars to issue warnings.

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Police officers measure the noise of a sports car’s engine at a parking area in Tokyo’s Koto Ward on Jan. 22. (Ryo Oyama)

Roulette Gang members often take photos and exchange information on the road shoulders and parking areas. Police will aggressively warn them against causing problems for others at parking areas.

The MPD plans to work with Metropolitan Expressway Co. to prevent reckless driving.

For example, the expressway operator will be asked to increase dispatches of yellow patrol vehicles that drive within the 50-kph speed limit on the expressway’s Inner Circular Route, a 14.8-kilometer loop in central Tokyo.

Police cars will accompany the patrols to make it more difficult to drive at dangerous speeds.

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