Look into my eyes… have you been drinking?

One of the “big three” tests used by Virginia law enforcement officers to determine if a suspect is too impaired to drive is the ominous sounding horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) test.  In this test, an officer will hold a pen or other object in front of your face and ask you to track its movement with your eyes.

In theory, the jerking or bouncing of your eyes while tracking the pen’s movement will tell the officer whether or not you’ve been drinking.  Does this sound a little hokey?  Well, its one of the reasons that this test isn’t always admitted into court.  Especially when you consider that one of the criteria for determining intoxication is whether or not the jerking of your eye begins before the pen is 45 degrees away from the center of your face.  I don’t know about you, but do you think you can accurately judge a 45 degree angle?  Does this seem like a reasonable way to tell if a person has been drinking?

If you want to read more about DUI issues and this and other tests, please visit our law library.  Check out articles like “DUI and the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test” and “All about the Walk and Turn Field Sobriety Test”.