Reader’s Question:

My brother has just been recently charged with DUI in Jacksonville, Florida and I think he was wrongfully accused of the crime. I’ve been doing some researches about DUI defenses that can be used in court. How accurate are the field sobriety tests being administered on people suspected of DUI?

Ava

Jacksonville, FL

The standardized field sobriety tests (FST) still provide a very inaccurate measure of whether or not a DUI suspect is impaired even when they are administered perfectly (which is rare). This goes true not only in Jacksonville, Florida but across all states. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), for example, the walk-and-turn test a 68% accuracy rate and the one leg stand test has a 65% accuracy rate. Not only do these statistics presume a perfectly administered test, they also assume every person is physically the same, without disability, inner ear problems, or infirmity in any way.

This means that if people were convicted based on these roadside tests, one third of these people would be innocent and wrongly convicted. If we view it in another way, when police officers arrest DUI suspects based on failing these tests, one in three suspects is wrongfully arrested.

Tags: drunk driving laws, DUI, DUI advice, DUI lawyer