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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

> a technology that can instantly detect whether someone's reflexes are impaired

I'm not sure if that would work in practice. As mentioned, alcohol makes someone more confident, or more likely to do stupid things. The test should incorporate that.

From another point of view, the alcohol tricks you into thinking your reflexes are still normal, while they are not. And this is the dangerous part, not the fact that your reflexes are somewhat lower (and perhaps comparable to an old lady who is still perfectly capable to drive safely).

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>alcohol makes someone more confident, or more likely to do stupid things.

Reminds me of the "say the alphabet backwards" challenge that cops often present in sobriety tests.

Drunk: ZYX... ZYXW... wait-wait... okay, ZYXTW, ummm...

Sober: I can't do that.

Stoned: Oh whaaat? No way, man. I can't even do that sober - shit, I mean...

Deep in my memory banks I have the recollection of a song "Backwards Alphabet", maybe it was on Sesame Street or something, that would allow you to "sing" the alphabet backwards without actually having to think about it; the melody acts as a mnemonic device to go along with the "lyrics" which are just the alphabet backwards.

I wonder how a cop would react if you started singing the alphabet backwards.

I don't know about you, buy my drunken singing is noticeably different than my sober singing.

The request is usually accompanied by "without singing" because they definitely know this trick.

In fact I think it's mostly not a test they use, or if it is it's to see how the person handles it, not that they can actually do it.

I can't do it sober, and I'm always sober these days. I find that test awkward.

Why do cops do that in America anyways? Isn't it much more secure to always use a breathalyzer. It only takes a few minutes and you can drive on. I'm also quite sure that you could train for soberty tests (if they are as "unusual" as saying the alphabet backwards) when you're drunk so the cops think you're under the legal limit.

>Isn't it much more secure to always use a breathalyzer.

The field sobriety and breathalyzer tests are just excuses to get suspected DWIs into the drunk tank nowadays.

Once there they'll draw blood for drug and blood-alcohol testing. That's the test that will be used in court if it gets that far.

>I'm also quite sure that you could train for soberty tests

Not a doctor but I don't know that you could fake out a Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_sobriety_testing

Because is you fail a "field sobriety test", it doesn't matter if you fail a breathalyzer, you get arrested for DUI/DWI anyway. So they do the field sobriety test first, then the breathalyzer after, so they have two chances of having a reason to arrest you.

But would their sobriety test hold up in court or what happens when you fail their field test (but pass the other test). If it doesn't hold up in court (because the scientific tests confirmed sobriety), why would they even bother doing both tests? As far as I know, breathalyzer are far more accurate (less false negatives and positives). This makes me wonder why they would even consider doing the other test. They could catch actual drunk drivers with the time saved and have less work to do (because they don't need to file out paper work for sober drivers).

As far as holding up in court, I'm not sure. But most cases never go to trial, and a plea agreement is simply made.

Yeah, I've heard that it's supposed to be a gotcha, and the "actual" test is that only drunk people will attempt it, while sober people will, allegedly, refuse to try.

Because refusing to obey a police officer who's considering arresting you is such a sober decision.

But I know my alphabet backwards. If sober, and I state it perfectly, will they think I'm drunk?

Why did you switch to alcohol when the parent was talking cannabis. They are very different drugs with very different physiological and psychological effects.

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