Japanese Man Held for Alleged Drunken Driving of Fake Police Car

Tokyo, May 21 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo police have arrested a 23-year-old man on suspicion of drunken driving of a vehicle modified to look like an unmarked police car.

Ren Nakamura, a resident of the city of Toda, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, has admitted to the allegations of dangerous driving resulting in injury, according to the Metropolitan Police Department's traffic investigation division.

He is suspected of driving the fake police car and crashing it into a power pole in Tokyo's Nerima Ward around 1:20 a.m. on Dec. 21 last year although he was in a state where normal driving was difficult due to the influence of alcohol. His girlfriend, 22, who was in the passenger's seat, suffered injuries taking three months to heal.

The woman drove the fake police car to pick up Nakamura at the workplace of his part-time job in the Japanese capital's Shinjuku Ward, where he was drinking, and he then drove the car himself.

Nakamura drove about 10 kilometers, using a red flasher and sounding a siren of the fake police car, and committed 15 traffic violations, such as ignoring traffic lights and speeding, during the travel.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]