Taimoor Rana is seasoned criminal defense attorney specializing in DUI related cases. He shares his expert legal opinion here « What are Field Sobriety Tests
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- Many accidents are reported everyday that happen just because of driving under the influence. However, without conducting some medical tests, it is sometimes hard to determine whether the driver is drunk or not.
Therefore, in order to find out, the police officers use a variety of field sobriety tests. But before conducting the tests, the police must have enough argument to stop your car.
A driver can be stopped only if he or she is driving strangely or violating the rules of the road. After being stopped for that, if the officer smells alcohol, or has a reason to believe that the driver is drunk, he has the right to ask the driver to pass few tests.
Field sobriety tests are basically divided attention tests that theoretically test the driver’s ability to perform the type of mental and physical multitasking that is required to operate a car. Generally there are many tests used by the police officers that include the following:
Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test
Although the name may sound scary, it is a simple eye test. The driver must follow a moving object with his eyes to show characteristic eye movement reaction. If the person is not drunk, he should be able to track the object smoothly, if not, the eyes will jerk as they follow the object.
The Walk-and-Turn test
This test requires a person to walk heel-to-toe in a straight line.
One Leg Stand Test
The driver is asked to simply stand on one leg.
Finger-to-Nose test
The person suspected of drinking must tip head back, close his eyes and touch the tip of nose with tip of index finger.
Alphabet Test
The driver is asked to recite all or part of the alphabet; it is commonly believed that alphabet must be recited backwards; however this is never done, because even sober people are sometimes unable to do this.
Another test requires the driver to touch each of the fingers of his hand to thumb, counting from one to four and backwards with each touch.whereas another one requires the driver must count backwards, from a number such as 30, 50 or 100.
The last test is done by using a device called "portable or preliminary breath tester" or PBT (breathalyzer). The driver is asked to breath into the device and it will determine how drunk the driver is.
There are two more scientific tests that require blood or urine sample from the driver. Although a part of this test is performed in the field, it is not considered to be a field sobriety test. The three main recommended tests that give the best results are the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, the walk-and-turn test, and the one-leg-stand.
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