Field Sobriety Tests: Are They Designed for Failure?

Cole, Spurgeon; Nowaczyk, Ronald H.

doi:10.2466/pms.1994.79.1.99

Cited by 14 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Perrine et al (1993) found that over 50% of drivers at .00% BAC failed Walk and Turn, and that correlations of Walk and Turn and One Leg Stand with BAC failed to reach significance. Cole and Nowaczyk (1994) reported that experienced police officers judged 46.5% of completely sober subjects videotaped performing psychomotor field sobriety tests to be impaired. O'Keefe (2001) reported that 60% of forensic physicians in Scotland with advanced credentials expressed concern that Walk and Turn and One Leg Stand were too difficult and the grading too stringent.…”

Section: Review Of the Empirical Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The standardized field sobriety tests: A review of scientific and legal issues.

Rubenzer¹

2008

Law and Human Behavior

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This article details the history and development of the National Highway and Safety Administration's Standardized Field Sobriety Tests. They are reviewed in terms of relevant scientific, psychometric, and legal issues. It is concluded that the research that supports their use is limited, important confounding variables have not been thoroughly studied, reliability is mediocre, and that their developers and prosecution-oriented publications have oversold the tests. Further, case law since their development has severed the tests from their validation data, so that they are not admissible on the criterion for which they were validated (blood alcohol concentration), and admissible for a criterion for which they were not (mental, physical, or driving impairment). Directions for further research are presented.

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Section: Review Of the Empirical Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The standardized field sobriety tests: A review of scientific and legal issues.

Rubenzer¹

2008

Law and Human Behavior

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“…Considerable effort has been devoted to developing and calibrating "field sobriety tests" to be applied when a driver or a boater is suspected to be above a legal BAC limit (Grossman et al, 1996;Martin, 1998;McKnight et al, 1999), and there is even a study calibrating a field sobriety test battery to measure a BAC level of 0.8 per mille rather than 1.0 per mille (Stuster & Burns, 1998). There are, however, also some more pessimistic reports in this literature (Cole & Nowaczyk, 1994).…”

Section: Previous Studies Of the Relation Of Clinical Assessment To Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

An international perspective

Clay¹

2004

Cancer Nursing Practice

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This report examines some recent explanations for the rising road fatality rates in developing countries. A key insight of these recent studies is that road fatalities per capita follow a Kuznets curve (an inverted-U shaped pattern with rising income per capita). The rising fatalities per capita in developing countries can be expected to reach a peak and then fall. However, if present trends continue, the already high fatality rates in developing countries could rise for several years before peaking.The report adopts the road fatalities Kuznets curve as a framework, and decomposes the per capita fatality rate into two terms that are multiplied together: vehicles per capita and fatalities per vehicle. Reducing either term, holding the other fixed, would lower fatalities per capita. Reducing motorization (vehicles per capita) is unlikely to be used as a policy to reduce fatalities because it is inextricably linked to economic growth. Consequently, the focus should be on reducing fatalities per vehicle.The report concludes with an economic analysis of the costs and benefits of using new vehicle technologies to reduce fatalities per vehicle in developing countries. To illustrate potential benefits, the report estimates the number of lives that could be saved in China and India as functions of the rate of improvement in fatalities per vehicle.17.

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“…To bridge this knowledge gap, an apparatus modeled after a horizontally placed ladder was designed. While this apparatus design may appear to be similar to the “elevated ladder beam” test employed with rats ( Soblosky et al, 1997 ) and mice ( Cummings et al, 2007 ), the design of the Horizontal Ladder Test (HLT) used here drew inspiration from the human standardized field sobriety test (FST), specifically the ‘walk and turn’ test (WAT) utilized for detecting driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol ( Cole and Nowaczyk, 1994 ; Burns, 2003 ). In the DUI detection test, individuals are instructed to take nine heel-to-toe steps along a straight line, followed by turning on one foot and returning in the opposite direction ( Downey et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The horizontal ladder test (HLT) protocol: a novel, optimized, and reliable means of assessing motor coordination in Sus scrofa domesticus

Liu,

Gutierrez,

Vega

et al. 2024

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Pigs can be an important model for preclinical biological research, including neurological diseases such as Alcohol Use Disorder. Such research often involves longitudinal assessment of changes in motor coordination as the disease or disorder progresses. Current motor coordination tests in pigs are derived from behavioral assessments in rodents and lack critical aspects of face and construct validity. While such tests may permit for the comparison of experimental results to rodents, a lack of validation studies of such tests in the pig itself may preclude the drawing of meaningful conclusions. To address this knowledge gap, an apparatus modeled after a horizontally placed ladder and where the height of the rungs could be adjusted was developed. The protocol that was employed within the apparatus mimicked the walk and turn test of the human standardized field sobriety test. Here, five Sinclair miniature pigs were trained to cross the horizontally placed ladder, starting at a rung height of six inches and decreasing to three inches in one-inch increments. It was demonstrated that pigs can reliably learn to cross the ladder, with few errors, under baseline/unimpaired conditions. These animals were then involved in a voluntary consumption of ethanol study where animals were longitudinally evaluated for motor coordination changes at baseline, 2.5, 5, 7.5, and 10% ethanol concentrations subsequently to consuming ethanol. Consistent with our predictions, relative to baseline performance, motor incoordination increased as voluntary consumption of escalating concentrations of ethanol increased. Together these data highlight that the horizontal ladder test (HLT) test protocol is a novel, optimized and reliable test for evaluating motor coordination as well as changes in motor coordination in pigs.

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Field Sobriety Tests: Are They Designed for Failure?

Cited by 14 publications

References 4 publications

The standardized field sobriety tests: A review of scientific and legal issues.

The standardized field sobriety tests: A review of scientific and legal issues.

An international perspective

The horizontal ladder test (HLT) protocol: a novel, optimized, and reliable means of assessing motor coordination in Sus scrofa domesticus

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