For eight years in the 1990s, Attorney Charles Ware hosted the extremely popular legal advice radio program "The Lawyer's Mailbox"; the Number One (#1)legal advice radio program in the Mid-Atlantic Region,on WEAA - 88.9 FM, Morgan State University Radio in Baltimore, Maryland.
www.CharlesJeromeWare.com

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

HISTORY OF STANDARDIZED FIELD SOBRIETY TESTS("SFSTs"): MARYLAND PREMIER DUI DEFENSE ATTORNEY CHARLES WARE

www.charlesjeromeware.com     " Here to make a Difference."
Among his numerous awards, honors and accolades, premier defense attorney Charles Ware is recognized as one of Maryland's "BEST 10 DUI and DWI ATTORNEYS"[AIDUIA], " TOP LAWYERS IN MARYLAND", "BEST ATTORNEYS OF AMERICA"[Rue's Rating], "U.S. SUPER LAWYER"[AL],"TOP 100 TRIAL LAWYERS"[NTL], "CLIENT DISTINCTION AWARD"[MH],and many more.
For an initial courtesy consultation, contact Attorney Charles Ware at (410) 720-6129. He can help you.


In an effort to uniform and standardize nationwide drunk driving arrests, beginning in or about 1970, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) begin conducting research studies into possible development of  a battery of  field sobriety tests (SFTs). The goal and was that these "standardized field sobriety tests" could be used by law enforcement officers to improve the detection of drivers under the influence of alcohol (DUI).


In late 1975, six(6) tests from these NHTSA studies, sponsored through the Southern California Research Institute (SCRI), were placed through " laboratory trials" :
(1) The Walk-and-Turn  (WAT) test;
(2) The One-Legged Stand  (OLS) test;
(3) The Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) test;
(4) The Finger-to-Nose (FN) test;
(5) The Finger Counting (Thumb and Fingers) [TF] test; and
(6) The Drawing on Paper (DOP) test.


Out of these six tests, three (3) were chosen by SCRI to be sufficiently reliable and accurate to conduct further DUI and DWI studies "in the field":
(1) The Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) test;
(2) The Walk-and Turn (WAT) test; and
(3) The One-Legged Stand (OLS) test.


In the end--- after multiple studies of the data were done in 1977, 1981 and 1983 by different  researchers --- NHTSA decided that:
(a) The HGN by itself was accurate by 77%;
(b) The WAT by itself was 68% accurate;
(c) The OLS was by itself was 65% accurate; and
(d) The HGN and WAT in combination were 80% accurate ----
     in determining whether a subject's blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 0.10 or above.
The assumption in these findings, of course, included optimum(perfect) test conditions --- including implementation of the tests.


In over 30 years of successfully representing clients accused of DUI and DWI, I have yet to see a occasion where any of these test were done optimally(perfectly).

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