Roadside Testing
Field Sobriety Tests in Texas
The roadside battery is three tests: horizontal gaze nystagmus, walk and turn, and one leg stand. Each has defined administration conditions and specific scoring criteria.
And here is the part almost nobody is told at the roadside: no Texas statute requires you to do them, and refusing carries no license consequence at all.
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Refusing roadside tests is not the same as refusing a specimen
This is the single most useful thing on this page, and it is widely misunderstood because the two refusals get spoken about as though they were one thing.
Chapter 724 of the Transportation Code, which creates the license suspension for refusal, covers breath and blood specimens. It does not cover field sobriety tests. Declining to stand on one leg at the roadside triggers no administrative suspension, no automatic penalty and no statutory consequence.
Refusing a breath or blood specimen is entirely different. That carries a suspension of 180 days or two years, it is admissible against you at trial under section 724.061, and since 2021 police can obtain a warrant and take blood regardless.
People routinely get this backwards, submitting to the roadside tests they could decline and then refusing the specimen that carries real consequences.
The three tests and what they assume
The battery was developed and validated under specific conditions. Where those conditions are absent, the scoring assumptions do not simply carry over.
A complete administration review also identifies the training material and test sequence the officer used. The handwritten worksheet, narrative report, and recording should describe the same instructions, order, and scored clues. Those records can be compared with the standardized field sobriety test resources without assuming that a difference automatically decides the case.
Horizontal gaze nystagmus presents a separate recording limitation. A wide dashboard or body-camera view may show the officer's position and stimulus movement but may not resolve small movements in the eyes. A recording that cannot show the eyes may still document the sequence, interruptions, and duration, but it cannot independently confirm every eye clue written in the report.
Horizontal gaze nystagmus
An officer looks for involuntary jerking as the eyes track an object. It requires proper stimulus positioning and speed, and nystagmus has causes entirely unrelated to alcohol, including several medical conditions.
Walk and turn
Nine heel to toe steps along a line, a turn, nine back. It assumes a reasonably level, dry, non slippery surface with a visible line, and adequate lighting. A sloped roadside verge at night is none of those.
One leg stand
Standing on one foot with the other raised roughly six inches, counting aloud for thirty seconds. Age, weight, footwear, injuries and inner ear conditions all affect performance independently of any substance.
What the video usually shows
The offense report describes the tests as the officer scored them. The dash and body camera show what actually happened, and the two are not always the same document.
Specific things worth looking for: whether the instructions were given as the manual requires, whether the demonstration was performed correctly, what the ground surface looked like, what you were wearing on your feet, how much traffic was passing and how the lighting was.
None of that appears in a scoresheet. All of it is on the recording, and it is the reason obtaining the video early matters more than almost anything else in the first weeks of a case.
If you have a condition
Inner ear problems, previous injuries, neurological conditions and significant weight or age differences all affect performance.
Whether you told the officer, and whether the officer asked, is usually on the recording too.
Related pages
Field sobriety test questions
Can I refuse field sobriety tests in Texas?
Yes. No statute requires you to perform them, and refusing carries no license consequence, because chapter 724 covers breath and blood specimens only.
Is that the same as refusing the breath test?
No, and the difference is important. Refusing a breath or blood specimen carries a suspension of 180 days or two years and is admissible at trial. Refusing roadside tests carries neither.
I have a knee injury. Does that matter?
It can matter a great deal. The walk and turn and one leg stand both assume normal balance and mobility. Whether you mentioned it, and whether the officer asked, is usually on the video.
The officer said I failed. Is that the end of it?
No. The tests have defined administration requirements, and whether they were met is a separate question from what score was written down. The recording is what answers it.