Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler and Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden March 28 asked Google and Apple to ban smartphone applications that allow drivers to share the location of drunken driving checkpoints.
The two state top lawyers have joined the growing chorus of lawmakers who claim the software helps users avoid law enforcement efforts to keep drunken drivers off the roads by setting up checkpoints at random. The applications allow users to search a database of drunken driver checkpoints.
“These smartphone applications give drunk drivers a ‘how-to’ guide to evade DUI checkpoints and endanger the lives of innocent citizens on our roads,” Gansler said in a statement after he and his Delaware counterpart announced they sent a letter to the cyberspace companies. Research in Motion, BlackBerry creator, has already banned sales of the application for its Smartphone after pressure from U.S. lawmakers.
“We strongly urge Google and Apple to take the most responsible and reasonable step and ban these types of applications altogether. These are nothing more than an overt method of circumventing laws that were specifically enacted to save lives,” Gansler said.
Maryland Attorney General spokeswoman Raquel Guillory said the attorneys general are not targeting individuals who made the applications, but instead want to reach those who are able to disseminate the information and stop them.
“It’s the people who are making the app available to large markets,” she said.
