A Poor Predictor Of Intoxication
Most people have seen at least one example of a field sobriety test on television. A police officer pulls over a motorist, asks the driver to step out of the vehicle and proceeds to put a person through a variety of “tests” to determine whether the driver is under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
There is one major flaw with this picture, and that is the field sobriety tests are widely acknowledged to be subjective and very poor predictors of whether or not a person is actually intoxicated.
If poor performance on a field sobriety test played a part in your intoxicated driving arrest, it’s possible that a lawyer can use questions surrounding the validity of these assessments as part of a DUI defense.
Types Of Field Sobriety Tests
Despite the fact that field sobriety tests have been determined to be unreliable predictors of whether a person is too drunk to drive, police officers nonetheless commonly use these assessments. There are many types of these tests administered, but the three assessments that are in most wide use include:
- The horizontal gaze nystagmus test. This test is used to indicate intoxication through eye movement. The officer will ask you to follow an object such as a pen or finger with your eyes, without moving your head. A person who is sober will have steady eye movement. A person who is intoxicated may have jerky eye motion.
- The walk-and-turn test. This test requires you to walk nine steps touching heal to toe, turning on one foot and walking the nine steps again. The officer looks for balance, using arms to steady yourself and not being able to listen and engage in the directed activity at the same time.
- The one-leg stand test. This test requires a person to balance on one foot raised approximately six inches off the ground while counting by 1,000s until instructed to stop. The officer generally runs the test for 30 seconds and looks for balance, putting your foot down and inability to count as indicators of intoxication.
As you might expect, there are a number of factors that can lead to poor performance on field sobriety tests that have nothing to do with drinking alcohol. For example, a person may perform badly due to health conditions that impair balance, restrictive clothing the limit movement, poor weather conditions and a wide range of other reasons.
