Field sobriety tests are a collection of physical tests used by police officers to attempt to determine if a person suspected of impaired driving is intoxicated with alcohol or drugs.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began research in 1975 on how to test suspects for impaired driving. The NHTSA developed a series of tests that police officers could use when evaluating suspected impaired drivers.
By 1981, officers in the United States began using the organization’s collection of standardized sobriety tests to help make decisions about whether to arrest suspected impaired drivers. The tests were designed to indicate intoxication associated with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.10%. This led to the use of the phrase “validation.” The tests were believed to have been validated to test for BACs of .10% and higher.
Credit: Oregon DUI Lawyer and Attorney