South Dakota is implementing a new sobriety test that will supplement the nationally recognized Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) set. SFST is a battery of 3 tests performed during a traffic stop in order to determine if a driver is impaired. The 3 tests that make up the SFST are the horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN), the walk-and-turn, and the one-leg stand tests. The new test will require suspected impaired drivers to deliver a concise and clear plot synopsis of James Joyce’s Ulysses. From the press release:
“Ulysses depicts the Irish citizens of 1904, especially Stephen Dedalus, as involved in tangled conceptions of their own Irishness, and complex relationships with various authorities and institutions specific to their time and place: the British empire, Irish nationalism, the Roman Catholic church, and the Irish Literary Revival. If you can’t succinctly analyze that in a few sentences you shouldn’t be behind the wheel. It’s that simple.”
— Darin Bergquist, Secretary of Transportation
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