New York DWI: Walk- and-Turn Field Sobriety Test
The walk-and-turn test is one of several field sobriety tests used by police when they suspect that a stopped driver may have been driving while intoxicated. The walk-and-turn test is a divided attention test in that it divides the driver's attention between listening, remembering, small muscle control, balancing, counting aloud, and walking heel-to-toe. It has two stages. It has the instruction stage and the walking stage. During the instruction stage, the driver is required to stand heel- to-toe with their hands at their side while listening to instructions. The walking stage takes place on a real or imaginary line. During the walking stage the driver must take nine heel- to- toe steps forward then turn around in a set way and then take nine heel- to- toe steps back towards where they started. The driver must also count their steps aloud and look down at their feet while performing the walking stage of the test. The turn requires the driver to keep their front foot on the line, turning as instructed and taking several small steps with their back foot until the turn is completed.
During the walk-and-turn test the police officer is trained to look for eight “clues”: inability to balance during the instruction stage; starting the walking stage too early; stopping during the walking stage; failure to touch heel- to-toe; stepping off the line; use of arms to balance; loss of balance during the turn or failing to turn in the prescribed manner and taking an incorrect number of steps. A driver who displays two or more of these clues or is unable to do the test is assumed by the police to have a blood alcohol content greater than 0.10. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration claims that the walk-and-turn test is 68% accurate. In my book, that means the test is inaccurate 32% of the time.
