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King County HGN Test DUI Lawyer
Washington Drunken Driving Defense Lawyer
Bremerton DUI HGN Test Defense
With a 77% accuracy rate, the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus or HGN Test is the most accurate Field Sobriety Test available to officers. It is also the most complex test to administer and evaluate. Most Washington State Courts will only allow the HGN Test to provide evidence of alcohol or drug consumption, not a driver’s intoxication level. A good King County HGN Test DUI lawyer can help show that your test should not be admitted as evidence at all if you have any medical conditions or were distracted by nearby vehicles and headlights.
In the HGN Test, you will be asked to stand with your arms at your sides and follow a pen, light or stylus with your eyes, without moving your head. The officer will make sure your pupils are the same size and not excessively dilated, these factors may indicate that you have had a head trauma or are on narcotics. If you cannot follow the stimulus with your eyes, the officer should make a legitimate assumption that you have a medical condition or blindness. In either case, this test should not be performed. If the officer’s notes indicate these findings, but she still administered the test, your DUI defense lawyers in Seattle, Washington should have this evidence suppressed from court.
Each phase of this test will be performed at least twice so the officer may evaluate both eyes individually. The first phase of the test involves the officer moving the stimulus in front of the suspect from right to left at a quick, steady speed. She will be looking for the eye to make jerking movements. Next, the officer will hold the stimulus at the edge of the driver’s vision for four seconds and look for eye jerking. After this, the officer will move the stimulus from the suspect’s nose to shoulder, slowly. She will look for any jerking movements of the eye, and if any are detected, the officer will hold the stimulus still. If the jerking stops, the test will continue, if not, she will take note of the jerking. The final step of this test is optional for the officer because it does not measure alcohol intoxication, but drug use. In this last part of the test, the officer will raise her stimulus above the suspect’s head and then lower it, again looking for jerking motions.
An unfortunate part of the HGN test is that both the suspect and officer vehicle-mounted cameras cannot view the up-close movements of the eye, making the test’s validly difficult to question. Your Seattle DUI lawyer may make the officer prove his or her ability to properly perform and evaluate this test if there is any question of the test’s accuracy. Fortunately, this test will not provide strong enough evidence to stand alone in court.
Even if you failed your Field Sobriety Test, can help provide evidence in your favor. You should contact us immediately to speak with a drunk driving defense attorney in King County. operates throughout Tacoma, Bellevue, Everett and everywhere in between.
