Santa Fe NM DUI Field Sobriety Tests
Reader’s Question:
I heard so much about the question of the accuracy of the field sobriety tests. Is it true that these tests are designed for failure? I want to clarify these things because my husband has been arrested for DUI in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Betsy
Santa Fe, NM
The three-test battery of Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (FST’s) has been promoted by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) over the past 20 years and has been adopted in all 50 states. In three of these highly publicized “validation studies”, NHTSA claims to have found the proof that these FST’s are valid measures of blood alcohol content (BAC). All of these field studies are pretty consistent in terms of low false negative rates. But the same can’t be said of false positives, and that is what should concern us – the wrongly accused being arrested because of flawed “science.”
Even people who have been trained in DUI detection and Standardized Field Sobriety Testing have some thoughts on the subject. That is because studies show that the FST’s seem to be very subjective and are poor indicators of impairment when someone has low and mid-range levels of alcohol in their system. With this being said, officers usually say that a person accused for DUI performed poorly on FST’s. A lot of things can affect a person’s ability on the tests. A person can simply be nervous after being pulled over for a DUI suspicion. Also, the lighting conditions, type of clothing, atmospheric conditions, etc can affect the results of the FST’s. These are just basic examples that your husband can attack the results of the FST’s. With an experienced DUI lawyer on his side, they definitely would have a good defense on his DUI case in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Tags: DUI, DUI advice, DUI arrest, DUI lawyer
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