The Standardized Field Sobriety Tests: a review of scientific and legal issues

Waiting for the Stop Sign to Turn Green: Contemporary Issues on Drug and Alcohol Impaired Driving Policy

Impaired driving has been a considerable social problem in the U.S. for decades, but efforts to reduce it have stalled after the initial reductions in the 1980's. As a result, legislators continue to develop more polices aimed at deterring impaired driving. Although alcohol has historically been the focus of these efforts, recently there has been increased concern about marijuana impaired driving policies as well. However, alcohol and marijuana impaired driving differ in many ways. This paper explores the costs and benefits of new zero-tolerance policies such as the reduction of the per-se Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) level from .08 to .05 for alcohol and the establishment of similar per-se limits for marijuana. These policies are not based on actual impairment and reflect a net widening effect that will criminalize unimpaired drivers, divert criminal justice resources away from the most problematic impaired drivers, and will have little impact on impaired driving crashes. As such, they have the potential to do more harm than good.

Survey regarding the 0.05 blood alcohol concentration limit for driving in the United States

BACKGROUND

On May 14, 2013, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) proposed that states lower the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) illegal limit from 0.08 to 0.05 g/dL (also referred to as the 0.08 law and the 0.05 limit, respectively). In March 2017, this recommendation was signed into law in the State of Utah.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this survey is to investigate perceptions regarding enforcement of the 0.05 g/dL BAC limit.

METHOD

Opinions of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and defense attorneys were obtained through a series of questionnaires and focus groups.

RESULTS

Survey data were collected from 32 law enforcement officers, 20 prosecutors, and 4 defense attorneys. The participants rated the usefulness of the NHTSA's driving while intoxicated (DWI) driving cues lower for the 0.05 limit than for the 0.08 law. Some of the participants believed that training would be needed in regard to sobriety testing under the 0.05 limit. Participants also stated that adequately preparing for prosecution of drunk drivers would be more difficult under the 0.05 limit. In addition, it was believed that drunk driving cases are more likely to be withdrawn and fewer plea agreements and guilty pleas are likely under the 0.05 limit. Prosecutors were concerned that the 0.05 limit would result in poorly investigated cases and overburden the court system. Defense attorneys were concerned about the social and economic costs of a 0.05 limit.

DISCUSSION

Overall, it appears that the 0.05 limit is viewed as enforceable and it will save lives; however, the usefulness of the NHTSA DWI Detection Guide and of the standardized field sobriety tests need to be established for lower BACs, and efforts must be made to educate people regarding the relationship between BAC and impairment and impairment and driving with the risk of injury and death.

CONCLUSION

Though the 0.05 limit offers promise in saving lives, the following issues associated with changing the limit to 0.05 need to be resolved prior to implementation: Validating the sobriety tests for the 0.05 limit; if needed, modifying the sobriety tests to make them effective and valid at the 0.05 limit; and training law enforcement personnel and educating the public regarding the 0.05 limit.

A Judicial Perspective on Expert Testimony in Marijuana Driving Cases

The decriminalization of marijuana and propagation of marijuana prescribed for medical reasons have resulted in an increase in driving while under the influence of marijuana. Currently, the legal definition of marijuana driving impairment varies by state across the United States. Expert witnesses such as drug recognition experts and medical toxicologists are needed during a discovery to educate attorneys and during a testimony to educate judges and juries. These proceedings provide an overview of the US case law about driving impairment, the current status of the legal thresholds used in the courts for the admission of the medical toxicologist as an expert witness in marijuana driving and related cases, and provides an understanding of evolving issues surrounding the admissibility of their scientific opinion testimony.

Long-term retention of a divided attention psycho-motor test combining choice reaction test and postural balance test: A preliminary study

Driving in degraded psychophysical conditions, such as under the influence of alcohol or drugs but also in a state of fatigue or drowsiness, is a growing problem. The current roadside tests used for detecting drugs from drivers suffer various limitations, while impairment is subjective and does not necessarily correlate with drug metabolite concentration found in body fluids. This work is a validation step towards the study of feasibility of a novel test conceived to assess psychophysical conditions of individuals performing at-risk activities. Motor gestures, long-term retention and learning phase related to the protocol are analysed in unimpaired subjects. The protocol is a divided attention test, which combines a critical tracking test achieved with postural movements and a visual choice reaction test. Ten healthy subjects participated in a first set of trials and in a second set after about six months. Each session required the carrying out of the test for ten times in order to investigate learning effect and performance over repetitions. In the first set the subjects showed a learning trend up to the third trial, whilst in the second set of trials they showed motor retention. Nevertheless, the overall performance did not significantly improve. Gestures are probably retained due to the type of tasks and the way in which the instructions are conveyed to the subjects. Moreover, motor retention after a short training suggests that the protocol is easy to learn and understand. Implications for roadside test usage and comparison with current tests are also discussed.

Judging intoxication

Judgments of whether a person is intoxicated by alcohol are important in a number of civil and law enforcement settings. This paper reviews how well people are able to make such judgments, the evidence for individual signs of intoxication, several structured rating techniques, and the use of sobriety tests. It is concluded that observers relying on common-sense clues of intoxication have limited ability to assess the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels of strangers, particularly below .10%. This generalization holds across professions that might be expected to show greater accuracy. Structured assessment instruments based on observable signs have shown promise but are confounded by the wide variations between casual social drinkers and those that have obtained a high level of tolerance. Among sobriety tests, only NHTSA's Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFSTs) have substantial, but seriously flawed, research support. Assessing the sobriety of strangers in the low to moderate BAC ranges without resort to chemical tests remains a daunting task.

Horizontal gaze nystagmus: a review of vision science and application issues

The Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) test is one component of the Standardized Field Sobriety Test battery. This article reviews the literature on smooth pursuit eye movement and gaze nystagmus with a focus on normative responses, the influence of alcohol on these behaviors, and stimulus conditions similar to those used in the HGN sobriety test. Factors such as age, stimulus and background conditions, medical conditions, prescription medications, and psychiatric disorder were found to affect the smooth pursuit phase of HGN. Much less literature is available for gaze nystagmus, but onset of nystagmus may occur in some sober subjects at 45 degrees or less. We conclude that HGN is limited by large variability in the underlying normative behavior, from methods and testing environments that are often poorly controlled, and from a lack of rigorous validation in laboratory settings.