Posts tagged Sobriety

Driving under the influence is a common problem in the world today. Without medical tests it is sometimes hard to determine if the driver of the stopped vehicle is drunk, so the police officers use a variety of field sobriety tests. It is important to remember that before using the tests the police must have enough argument to stop your car. A police officer can stop a driver only if he or she is driving strangely or violating the rules of the road. If after that 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 “divided attention tests” that theoretically test the suspect’s ability to perform the type of mental and physical multitasking that is required to operate a car. Generally there are a number of the most common tests used by the police officers:

-  Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test. Despite a scary name it is a simple eye test, the stopped person must follow a moving object with the eyes to determine characteristic eye movement reaction. If the person is sober, he or she will be able to track the object smoothly, if not the eyes will jerk as they follow the object.

- The Walk-and-Turn test is when a person must walk heel-to-toe in a straight line.

- One Leg Stand Test it is simply standing on one leg.

- The Modified-Position-of-Attention (also called the Romberg test). The suspected person must stand with feet together, tip head back and eyes closed for thirty seconds.

- Finger-to-Nose test. The suspected person must tip head back; close the eyes closed and touch the tip of nose with tip of index finger.

- Alphabet Test. The driver must 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.

- The driver must touch each finger of hand to thumb counting from one to four and backwards with each touch.

- The driver must count backwards from a number such as 30, 50 or 100.

- The driver must look at a flashlight so that an officer can observe the reaction of the eyes.

- The last test includes the device called “portable or preliminary breath tester” or PBT (breathalyzer). The driver must breath into the device and it will determine how drunk the driver is.

Also there are two more scientific tests, during these tests the driver is asked to submit blood or urine for a scientific test. While a part of this test is performed in the field, still it is not considered to be a field sobriety test. While some of the listed tests are considered unreliable, there are three main recommended tests that give the best results in most cases: the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, the walk-and-turn test, and the one-leg-stand.