Be thankful you weren't in Austria. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-0MXU3J6Qbs&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-0MXU3J6Qbs&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
I'm not sure if I can pass a field test either. One, Who the heck is able to recite the alphabet in reverse order? And two, Yao has better balance than I do. Thank god I don't drink.
The "follow my finger/pen" test is impossible to pass. I failed it sober when I was pulled over. I tried it again a few times at home with friends administering it and it is impossible to follow the object in the manner the cops claim you can if you have not been drinking or doing drugs. Just more BS from your neighborhood cops looking to do the easy work instead of going after legit bad guys.
They can certainly arrest you for suspicion of DWI, drag you into jail, give you a blood test and make the next 12-18 hours a living hell for you.
The "follow the finger test" actually has to do with the movement of your actual eyeball. Your eye will "twitch" back and forth after looking a certain number of degrees left or right of center.
To be fair, I was the bad guy. I could have handled the (literal) bug on my ass much better than I did, and I sped. And my eyes honestly did look like I had just [make some Pineapple Express joke here]. I just wish they would have given me the actual, bottom line, test earlier in the process. Like, right away. As I politely asked for.
Yeah. Because drunk driving never killed anyone. Don't know where the "reverse alphabet test" came up. Not sure anyone uses that one, I know they don't use it in Texas. It doesn't qualify as a balance test and it doesn't involve divided attention so I don't think it would be useful. And like someone else said, if you tried the "follow the finger" test at home, you didn't even understand what was being tested. The officer is looking for horizontal gaze nystagmus at 45% and at maximum deviation, represented by a twitching of your eyeball, indicative of intoxication.
does your license require you to wear corrective lenses to drive? could they have written you up for taking out your contacts or are they for reading only?
I got pulled over once and did the same thing. Actually, I wasn't polite about it. I said it over and over. "I'll blow right now, give me the damn test!" Looking back at what I know now, the officers are trained to go through the battery of tests, and they're not going to do anything out of order because doing so will open them up to attacks at trial. Furthermore, good officers won't rely on a portable breath tester because it keeps people from giving samples on the real test, the instrument they keep at the jail.
I know. My eyeballs "twitch" no matter what. I think it is a test made to fail you so they pretend to have a reason to harass you more.
