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Many people are under
the belief that based upon the results of Standard Field Sobriety
Tests (SFST's) one can tell whether or not a person is capable of
operating a motor vehicle safely. Such a belief is misplaced.
Indeed, the tests developed for the National Highway Safety and
Traffic Administration (NHSTA) to test motorists for Driving While
Intoxicated are far from the accurate and reliable indicators of a
person's level of sobriety that law enforcement officials would have
you believe.
The test used today by law enforcement
were originally evaluated and
developed based upon a 1977 study. This study tested individuals
with Blood Alcohol Contents (BAC) ranging from zero to .15. Even
with such a great disparity between the subjects, after putting the
subjects through the SFST's the researchers found a 47 percent error
rate. That is, 47% of the subjects were misidentified by Police
Officers as being intoxicated when they were not.
In 1981 a further study was conducted. In this study, the BAC
distribution of individuals was revised so as to reflect more
subjects with BAC's lower than .05 and more with BAC's closer to
.15. Not surprisingly the false arrest percentage went down to 32
percent. This is still a very high percentage.
Moreover, the designers of the tests have conceded that one's
inability to perform the Walk and Turn Test, One Leg Stand Test,
Finger to Nose Test, or Romberg balance test have nothing to do with
a person's ability to drive. In the case, State of Florida v.
Meador, et al.; one of the researchers who developed the SFST's, Dr.
Marceline Burns, conceded that it is not possible to measure a
person's driving ability based upon SFST's performance.
Most importantly, SFST's are divided attention tests, anything that
effects a person's ability to concentrate will ultimately effect a
person's ability to perform the tests. One can hardly imagine a more
disconcerting experience than being on the side of the road in the
morning attempting to perform SFST's with a Police Officer hovering
over you, flashing police lights in your face, and cars passing by
you as you attempt to perform tasks that on your best day, under
virtually no pressure, you could not perform to the Police Officer's
satisfaction.
Another problem with SFST's is that they require a subject to
perform tasks that are not normal. For example, how many of us on a
daily basis have the occasion to walk a straight-line heel to toe,
while counting out loud, and with our arms at our side, or holding
one foot six inches off the ground, arms at our side, while counting
to 30 by one thousandths. By asking a suspect to perform these tasks
which are not normal, and then judging him on how well he performs
these tasks, even though they have never seen him perform these
tasks before, the Police in essence are virtually guaranteeing a
built in failure. A more troubling fact is that in essence the
Police are making determinations and grading a suspect as to how he
or she would perform normally on these tests when in reality they do
not know.
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DWI Lawyer, Call
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