Field Sobriety Tests

If you have ever seen a show about law enforcement, you may have witnessed a field sobriety test. These are the tests where the officer asks the suspect to walk in a straight line or stand on one leg. However, if you have been arrested for driving under the influence and asked to perform these tests, you may know that they are not the most accurate way to determine a person’s intoxication level.

In fact, field sobriety tests do not meet the criteria for reliability that has been established by the scientific community. This is due to the lack of data showing a credible link between poor performance and impairment.

The National Highway Safety and Traffic Administration’s field sobriety tests were developed based on a 1977 study. The subjects of this study had blood alcohol content levels ranging from zero to .15 percent. Though there was such a large different between the test subjects, there was a 47 percent error rate in determining a person’s impairment after administering a field sobriety test. This means that almost half of the people were misidentified by police officers as being drunk when in fact they were not.

Another problem with these tests is that there is no correlation between a person’s ability to perform the One Leg Stand Test, Horizontal Nystagmus Test, or the Walk and Turn Test and the person’s ability to drive. One of the researchers has even agreed that this statement is true.

Field sobriety tests are typically divided attention tests, meaning that if there is a problem that is affecting the driver’s ability to concentrate, it will also affect how he or she performs on the test. However, there can be nothing that will affect a person’s concentration more than the flashing lights of a police car in the middle of the night while attempting to walk in a straight line. Even on a good day, most people would find this test difficult to pass.

There may also be a problem with the way that the police officer administered the test. Officers normally receive this training while at their police academy, and are not constantly retrained on the NHTSA’s guidelines.

Many defense attorneys are NHTSA trained, and can challenge what the officer did wrong at the scene.

If you have recently been arrested for drunk driving, you should call an attorney now to discuss defense tactics with you.