A Houston school bus driver is being charged with a felony DWI. Nathan Manuel was transporting four students home from school when the school bus backed into another car several times. Residents said that when Manuel stepped out to investigate, he was stumbling and had trouble speaking. Then he drove away. Officers caught up with him, administered Field Sobriety Tests, and arrested him. Read more of the news story here.

The charge is a felony because there was a child in the vehicle. In Texas, a DWI with a child under 15 in the vehicle increases the charge from a class B misdemeanor to a state jail felony.

Drug Related DWI can be Trickier

In Texas, DWI applies to alcohol or “a controlled substance, drug, or dangerous drug” that strips you of the normal use of your physical and mental faculties. The percentage of alcohol in the bloodstream that makes a person intoxicated is clearly defined at 0.08%. With other drugs, it can be trickier to measure. At the police station Nathan Manuel blew a 0.00% on the Intoxilyzer 5000. Can you get a DWI after blowing a 0.00%? Absolutely, yes. (For a troubling story on a DWI with a 0.00% breath test, read about Larry Davis.) In situations with a clean breath test, police will call in a drug recognition expert to try to investigate a drug related DWI. Here, the DRE concluded that Manuel was affected by a central nervous system depressant.

Drug Recognition Experts Use 12-Step Checklist to Spot Drug Related DWI

An officer has to go through more training to become DRE. Here is the drug recognition expert student manual. As the manual indicates, the training is not conducted by medical personnel or physicians trained to recognize drug intoxication. The training is conducted by other cops. Much like the HGN, the testing purports to be scientific without sterling validity or reliability. Regardless, DRE expert testimony is admissible in many courts. Here is the 12-Step checklist:

  1. Breath alcohol test
  2. Interview of arresting officer
  3. Preliminary examination
  4. Examination of the eyes
  5. Divided attention
  6. Vital Signs and second pulse
  7. Dark room examinations and ingestion examination
  8. Check for muscle tone
  9. Check for injection sites and third pulse
  10. Interrogation, statements, and other observations
  11. Opinion of evaluator
  12. Toxicological examination