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For the duration of a drunk driving investigation, police officers will usually administer a number of so-called "field sobriety tests" (FSTs). This may include a battery of three to five tests, frequently selected by the officer; these can include walk-and-turn, one-leg-stand, horizontal gaze nystagmus, fingers-to-thumb, finger-to-nose, Rhomberg (modified position of attention), alphabet recitation, or hand-pat. In a increasing quantity of law enforcement agencies in DUI Lawyer Orange County, California and across the nation, a "standardized" battery of three tests will soon be given - walk-and-turn, one-leg-stand and nystagmus - plus they should be scored objectively instead of using an officer's subjective opinion.

How valid are these FSTs? Not very, according to DUI Lawyer Orange County CA Taylor, a former prosecutor and the author of the leading legal textbook "Drunk Driving Defense, 6th edition". The tests are basically "designed for failure". In 1991, Taylor reports, Doctor Spurgeon Cole of Clemson University conducted a study on the accuracy of field sobriety tests. His staff videotaped 21 individuals performing 6 common field sobriety tests, then showed the tapes to 14 cops and asked them to decide whether the suspects had "had too much to drink to drive. " Not known to the officers, the blood-alcohol concentration of each and every of the 21 subjects was. 00%. The results: 46% of times the officers gave their opinion that the subject was too inebriated to drive. Quite simply, the FSTs were scarcely more accurate at predicting intoxication than flipping a coin. Cole and Nowaczyk, "Field Sobriety Tests: Are They Designed for Failure? ", 79 Perceptual and Motor Skills 99 (1994).

What about the brand new, improved "standardized" DUI tests? Research funded by the National Highway Traffic Administration determined that the three best field sobriety tests were walk-and-turn, one-leg stand, and horizontal gaze nystagmus. Yet, even using these supposedly more accurate -- and objectively scored -- tests, the researchers found that 47% of the subjects who have already been arrested based upon test performance actually had blood-alcohol concentrations of significantly less than the legal limit. In other words, almost half all persons "failing" the tests were not legally under the influence of alcohol!

According to the Orange County DUI Attorneysolicitors in Mr. Taylor's Southern California attorney, the fact that these tests are largely unfamiliar to many people, and that they get under extremely unfortunate circumstances, make sure they are more difficult for people to perform. Only two miscues in performance can lead to a person being classified as "impaired" as a result of alcohol consumption when the problem could possibly be the result of unfamiliarity with the test.