Can You Refuse a Field Sobriety Test in PA? Rules and Risks

Yes, you can refuse a field sobriety test in PA, and doing so carries no fine, no license suspension, and no criminal charge. No Pennsylvania statute requires a driver to walk a line, stand on one leg, or follow a pen with their eyes at the roadside. The catch is that field sobriety tests and the chemical test an officer requests after a DUI arrest are governed by completely different rules. Confusing the two can cost you your license for a year or more.

Why Field Sobriety Tests Are Voluntary

Pennsylvania’s implied consent law, 75 Pa. C.S. § 1547, requires drivers to submit to chemical testing of breath or blood after a lawful DUI arrest. It says nothing about roadside exercises. Because no state law compels you to perform them, refusing is not illegal and triggers no administrative penalty.

The three standardized tests officers use are the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (tracking eye movement), the Walk and Turn (walking heel-to-toe along a line), and the One Leg Stand (balancing on one foot while counting). All three are “divided attention” tests meant to split your focus between mental and physical tasks at the same time, which gets harder when a person is impaired.¹ Officers use your performance to build probable cause for an arrest. You have no obligation to help them do it.

Why Refusing Often Makes Sense

Field sobriety tests are less reliable than their reputation suggests. NHTSA’s own validation research found the combined three-test battery produced correct arrest decisions 91% of the time at a BAC of 0.08 or above, with the individual tests scoring lower: 88% for the eye-tracking test, 83% for the One Leg Stand, and 79% for the Walk and Turn.² Roughly one in five people asked to walk a line will “fail” without being over the limit.

Those figures come from controlled research conditions. Real stops happen on sloped shoulders, in rain, under flashing lights, with traffic going past. Medical conditions can wreck your results too. The eye-tracking test measures involuntary eye movements called nystagmus, which also occur naturally with inner ear disorders like Ménière’s disease, certain vision problems, neurological conditions like multiple sclerosis, and as a side effect of some anti-seizure medications.³ Knee injuries, back problems, and age can make the balance tests nearly impossible for a sober person. Every “clue” an officer writes down becomes evidence that can be used against you at trial.

What Still Happens If You Refuse

Declining field sobriety tests does not stop a DUI arrest. Officers can establish probable cause from other observations: the smell of alcohol, slurred or slow speech, bloodshot eyes, fumbling with your license, or the driving behavior that caused the stop. If those indicators are strong enough, the arrest happens with or without FST results.

What refusal does accomplish is keeping one category of evidence out of the report. Instead of a detailed list of “clues” from three tests, the prosecution has only the officer’s general observations. That can matter at trial or in plea negotiations, because FST results are often the backbone of a DUI case when chemical evidence is weak or unavailable.

The Preliminary Breath Test Is Also Voluntary

Many drivers don’t realize the handheld breath device an officer may use at the roadside, before any arrest, is not the same as the post-arrest chemical test. Pennsylvania law lets an officer request a preliminary breath test (PBT) when there is reasonable suspicion of impaired driving, but this screening only helps the officer decide whether to arrest. The statute states explicitly that refusing the PBT does not trigger the license suspension penalties that apply to post-arrest chemical test refusals.⁴ If an officer asks you to blow into a handheld device at the roadside before arresting you, that request is voluntary.

Officers are not always clear about which test is which. The dividing line is arrest. Before arrest, both field sobriety tests and the preliminary breath test are voluntary. After arrest, the implied consent law applies and the rules change.

After Arrest, Chemical Tests Are Not Optional

Under Pennsylvania’s implied consent law, by driving on any road in the state you have already agreed to submit to chemical testing of your breath or blood if an officer lawfully arrests you for DUI.⁴ The statute covers breath and blood only; it does not mention urine testing.

Refusing a chemical test after arrest triggers an automatic license suspension that is separate from any DUI conviction:

First refusal: 12-month suspension.
Second or subsequent refusal, or any refusal if you have a prior DUI conviction: 18-month suspension.

These suspensions apply whether or not you are ever convicted of DUI. Even if the DUI charge is dismissed, the suspension for the refusal stands on its own.⁴ You will also owe a restoration fee of up to $2,000 to get your license back.⁵

Refusal Also Escalates DUI Penalties

The suspension is not the worst of it. If you refuse a breath test and are then convicted of general impairment DUI under section 3802(a)(1), Pennsylvania bumps sentencing to the highest penalty tier, the same tier that applies to drivers caught at 0.16 BAC or above.⁶ The gap is wide:

General impairment, first offense, no refusal: six months’ probation, a $300 fine, alcohol highway safety school, no mandatory jail time.⁶
General impairment, first offense, with refusal: a minimum of 72 consecutive hours in jail, a fine between $1,000 and $5,000, a 12-month license suspension, alcohol highway safety school, and mandatory drug and alcohol treatment.⁷

For a second offense with a chemical test refusal, the minimum climbs to 90 days in jail and a $1,500 fine. A third offense means at least one year of imprisonment and a $2,500 minimum fine.⁷ Refusing a chemical test after arrest is not just a longer suspension; it guarantees harsher criminal penalties if convicted.

Blood Draws and Warrants

If an officer requests a blood draw rather than a breath test, you have slightly more protection under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 decision in Birchfield v. North Dakota. The Court held that breath tests can be required without a warrant as part of a lawful DUI arrest, but blood tests cannot. Because a blood draw is more physically intrusive and the sample can reveal information beyond BAC, officers need either consent or a search warrant.⁸

In practice, Pennsylvania officers will usually seek a warrant from a judge, often by phone, before compelling a blood draw. If you refuse and a warrant issues, the draw happens anyway. If no warrant is obtained and you refuse, the refusal still triggers the implied consent suspension, but an attorney may be able to challenge whether the refusal penalties were properly applied.

You Have No Right to Call a Lawyer First

You do not have the right to speak with an attorney before deciding whether to submit to a chemical test. The DL-26 warnings Pennsylvania officers read say so directly: “You have no right to speak with an attorney or anyone else before deciding whether to submit to testing. If you request to speak with an attorney or anyone else after being provided these warnings or you remain silent when asked to submit to a blood test, you will have refused the test.” Asking to call your lawyer, or simply staying silent, counts as a refusal and starts the suspension clock.

How to Handle a DUI Stop in Pennsylvania

Stay polite and hand over your license, registration, and insurance. Beyond that, hold the voluntary-versus-mandatory line in your mind:

Field sobriety tests, before arrest: voluntary. You can say, “I’d rather not do those exercises.” No penalty.
Preliminary breath test, before arrest: voluntary. Refusing the handheld roadside device carries no suspension.
Chemical breath or blood test, after arrest: governed by implied consent. Refusing triggers an automatic 12- or 18-month license suspension and, if convicted, sentencing under the harshest penalty tier.

If you are arrested, the officer must read the implied consent warnings from the DL-26 form before requesting a chemical test. Listen carefully. Those warnings spell out the suspension length and restoration fees. Silence or stalling counts as a refusal.

Contact a DUI defense attorney as soon as possible after any arrest. Pennsylvania allows you to appeal an implied consent suspension, and procedural defenses often exist around whether the officer had proper grounds for the arrest, whether the DL-26 warnings were read correctly, or whether a blood draw was conducted without a valid warrant. The window to challenge a suspension is short, so acting quickly matters.

1
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). SFST Refresher: DWI Detection and Standardization Field Sobriety Testing Refresher – Participant Manual
2
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). DWI Detection and Standardized Field Sobriety Testing Refresher Instructor Guide
3
Cleveland Clinic. Nystagmus: Definition, Causes, Testing and Treatment
4
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 75 – 1547 – Chemical Testing to Determine Amount of Alcohol or Controlled Substance
5
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 75 – 1547 – Chemical Testing to Determine Amount of Alcohol or Controlled Substance
6
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 75 – 3804 – Penalties
7
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 75 – 3804 – Penalties
8
Justia Law. Birchfield v. North Dakota