Reid asks smartphone makers to pull DUI apps

Sen. Harry Reid and three other Democrats today called on Apple and other smartphone manufacturers to remove software applications that help drivers evade police traps for drunken driving.

"With more than 10,000 Americans dying in drunk-driving crashes every year, providing access to applications that alert users to DUI checkpoints is harmful to public safety," Reid said in a letter also signed by Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Tom Udall of New Mexico.

The letter was prompted by a story this week in USA Today that reported on smartphone applications that alert drivers to speed traps, red light cameras and school zones, as well as DUI checkpoints.

The letter was sent to executives at iPhone maker Apple, Google, which developed the Android operating system, and Research in Motion, the company behind the BlackBerry.

A check of apps for the iPhone showed at least one, Checkpointer, that is designed to help drivers avoid police stops in Orange County, Calif. Another, called D.U.I. Lawyers, provides a "complete listing of DUI lawyers around you."