Kirk Tarman– Criminal Defense Attorney – San Bernardino County, CA
“Now NHTSA, National Highway Transportation Safety Administration board, they have created these tests, and they’re shown how you do these tests, how you instruct the person to do these tests, and all the clues that will show impairment. For example, the clue isn’t that you don’t touch, heel the toe, but you actually come within half an inch of your heel of the toe. Police officers, a lot of police officers, don’t know that. They think they didn’t touch, that’s a clue. So, they get very hypercritical on me. So that’s one of the field sobriety tests.
You’ve got the one-legged stand, which is where you’re supposed to raise your foot up, six inches, keep your hands at your side, count to thirty. That’s one of the things. These clues, whether you wobble, whether you put your foot down, whether you raise your hands.
You’ve got what’s called the Romberg test, or the modified Romberg test, where you close your eyes, and you basically put your…you look upward, and you count to thirty internally. And they’re testing your internal clock. They’re also looking to see if there’s body sways, and things like that. Because if you think about what happens when you’re under a depressant in this Romberg. What’s happening is you’re slowing down. Your internal clock is slow, so you’re going like this, 1001, 1002. So, when you think thirty seconds is up, you’re ‘it’s up’, and the cop’s been looking at his watch, it’s been a minute and a half. And in fact, I’ve had some of my clients, literally, they fall asleep. They just go, ‘where am I’?”
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