Can You Refuse a Field Sobriety Test in PA?

You can refuse a field sobriety test in PA without any direct legal penalty. No Pennsylvania statute requires you to walk a line, stand on one leg, or follow a pen with your eyes at the roadside, and declining carries no fine, no license suspension, and no criminal charge. The catch every driver needs to understand is that this rule applies only to the roadside exercises before arrest. Post-arrest chemical tests of your breath or blood follow completely different rules, and confusing the two can cost you your license for a year or more.

Why Field Sobriety Tests Are Voluntary

Pennsylvania’s implied consent law, at 75 Pa. C.S. § 1547, requires drivers to submit to chemical testing of breath or blood after a lawful DUI arrest. The statute says nothing about roadside field sobriety exercises.¹ Because no law compels you to perform them, refusing is not illegal.

The three standardized tests Pennsylvania officers use are the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (tracking an object with your eyes), the Walk and Turn (walking heel-to-toe along a line and turning), and the One Leg Stand (balancing on one foot while counting). All three are “divided attention” tasks meant to split your focus between mental and physical demands at the same time.² Officers use your performance to build probable cause for an arrest. You have no obligation to help them do so.

Why Refusing Often Makes Sense

These tests are less reliable than most people assume. NHTSA’s own field validation research put the combined three-test battery at 91% accuracy for identifying drivers at 0.08 BAC or above. Individually, the eye-tracking test was 88% accurate, the walk-and-turn 79%, and the one-leg stand 83%.³ Roughly one in five sober people asked to walk a line will still show enough “clues” to appear impaired.

Those figures come from controlled research. Real stops happen on uneven shoulders, in rain, under strobing lights, with traffic passing a few feet away. Medical issues also skew results. Nystagmus, the involuntary eye movement the officer looks for, occurs naturally in people with inner ear disorders like Ménière’s disease, certain vision problems, neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis, and as a side effect of anti-seizure medications.⁴ Knee and back injuries, weight, and age can make the balance tests nearly impossible for a completely sober person. Every “clue” the officer records ends up in the report and can be used against you at trial.

What Happens If You Refuse

Refusing the roadside tests does not prevent an arrest. Officers can still establish probable cause from the smell of alcohol, slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, fumbling with documents, or the driving that prompted the stop. If those observations are strong enough, the officer will arrest you either way.

What refusing does is keep one category of evidence out of the officer’s report. Instead of a detailed list of failed “clues” from three separate tests, the prosecution has only general observations. That difference can matter at trial or during plea negotiations, especially when chemical test results are weak, delayed, or unavailable.

The Roadside Breath Device Is Also Voluntary

Many drivers don’t realize the handheld breath device an officer may pull out before any arrest is not the same as the post-arrest chemical test. Pennsylvania law lets officers request a preliminary breath test (PBT) when they have reasonable suspicion of impaired driving, but the statute explicitly says refusing the PBT does not trigger the license suspension penalties that apply to post-arrest chemical test refusals.¹ The roadside PBT is a screening tool to help the officer decide whether to arrest.

Officers are not always clear about which test is which, so the key line to remember is arrest. Before arrest, both field sobriety tests and the preliminary breath test are voluntary. After arrest, the rules change.

After Arrest, Chemical Tests Are a Different Story

Under Pennsylvania’s implied consent law, driving on any road in the state counts as advance agreement to submit to chemical testing of breath or blood after a lawful DUI arrest.¹ The statute covers breath and blood only; it does not mention urine testing.

Refusing a post-arrest chemical test triggers an automatic license suspension that stands on its own, separate from any DUI conviction:

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

The suspension applies even if the DUI charge is later dismissed. You will also owe a restoration fee of up to $2,000 to get your license back after the suspension ends.⁵

Refusal Also Raises the DUI Sentence

The license suspension is not the worst of it. If you refuse a chemical test and are then convicted of general impairment DUI under section 3802(a)(1), Pennsylvania sentences you at the highest penalty tier, the same one that applies to drivers at 0.16 BAC or above.⁶ For a first offense, the gap is dramatic:

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

That escalation is why post-arrest refusal is a high-stakes decision. You are not only risking a longer suspension; you are guaranteeing harsher criminal penalties if you are convicted.

Blood Draws Need a Warrant

Blood tests get slightly different treatment because of 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. Blood draws are more physically intrusive and produce samples that can reveal information beyond BAC, so officers need either your consent or a search warrant.⁸

In practice, Pennsylvania officers typically seek a warrant from a judge by phone. If a warrant is issued, the draw happens whether you consent or not. If you refuse and no warrant is obtained, the implied consent suspension still applies, but your attorney may be able to challenge how the refusal was handled. The facts of the specific stop matter here.

You Cannot Call a Lawyer First

You have no right to speak with an attorney before deciding whether to submit to a chemical test. The DL-26 warnings that Pennsylvania officers read state this 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 staying silent, counts as a refusal.

What to Do During a DUI Stop

Stay polite. Hand over your license, registration, and insurance when asked. Beyond that, keep the voluntary-versus-mandatory line clear:

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

If you are arrested, the officer must read the implied consent warnings from the DL-26 form before requesting the chemical test. Listen closely. Silence and stalling both count as refusal.

Contact a DUI defense attorney as soon as possible after any arrest. Pennsylvania allows appeals of implied consent suspensions, and there are often procedural defenses available, particularly around whether the officer had proper grounds for arrest, whether the DL-26 warnings were read correctly, and whether a blood draw was conducted with a valid warrant. The window to challenge a suspension is short.

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