July 3, 2018 | DUI

The Romberg Balance Test is designed to evaluate your neurological function, it was developed by and named after a German neurologist, Mortiz Heinrich Romberg, and has not been approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Due to the fact that the Romberg Test is not approved by the NHTSA it is not a standardized test and there are no formal guidelines on its administration or scoring. Generally, the test is performed by standing with your feet together, tilting the head back slightly, closing your eyes, and saying stop when you anticipate that 30 seconds have passed.

While balancing the law enforcement officer looks for clues of intoxication or impairment, including: amount and direction of swaying, eyelid/body tremors, length of time that passed when you say stop, muscle tone (overly tense or relaxed), sound or statements made during the test, and ability to follow directions. Generally, alcohol may slow down the body’s internal clock resulting in a subjecting waiting too long before saying stop, whereas other substances will speed up the internal clock, the greater the time gap the more likely you will receive a mistiming clue of intoxication.

The concept behind this test is that neurologically it requires at least 2 of the 3 functions to maintain balance, vision, vestibular function (equilibrium, motion and spatial orientation information provided by the inner ear), and proprioception (knowing where your limbs are in space around your body), with the thought being that if the subject is unable to balance, without vision, using the two other functions it is an indication of intoxication.

It is possible that individuals with medical conditions effecting their neurological systems, middle ear and brain disorders, vitamin deficiencies such as B12, conditions affect sensory nerves, lesions on the nervous system, and other medical issues which affect the ability to balance should not perform this test.

Common bases under which and attorney could contest the Romberg test include difficulty understanding instructions, non-standardized testing, coordination failures due to non-alcohol related causes, invalid instructions, and outside distractions.

Regardless, this is typically only used as one of a slew of field sobriety testing to produce probably cause for a driving under the influence arrest. The sole purpose of field sobriety tests is to produce probable cause, not prove you’re are sober, therefore you should think carefully prior to agreeing to submit to field sobriety tests, especially non-standardized tests such as the Romberg Balance Test.

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