Montana trooper warns distracted driving rising among teen drivers, families urged to act

Teen drivers on Helena-area roads are showing up in trooper stops for one habit again and again: the phone. Montana Highway Patrol trooper Eric James Arnold said more than 80% of his traffic stops involving teen drivers are tied to distraction, a warning that lands hard in Lewis and Clark County as school commutes, spring travel and highway traffic pick up.

Arnold said troopers are seeing the signs in plain view, including drivers drifting across lane markings and looking down at a phone behind the wheel. The risk is not abstract. At highway speed, a text can mean a driver covers hundreds of feet with eyes off the road, enough distance for one mistake to turn into a crash. Since the start of 2026, Montana Highway Patrol has recorded 529 distracted-driving crashes, 237 injuries and 3 fatalities.

The issue has become a formal public-safety focus well beyond Helena. April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 2026 campaign, Put the Phone Away or Pay, is aimed at the financial, legal and deadly consequences of phone use while driving. Nationwide, the agency says distracted driving killed 3,208 people in U.S. motor vehicle crashes in 2024, and it estimated 3,275 deaths and 324,819 injuries in distraction-related crashes in 2023.

Montana transportation officials are pushing the same message at home. The Montana Department of Transportation says motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for young people in Montana and across the United States, and its teen-driver goal is to reduce young-driver fatality crashes to a five-year average rate of 29.5 by Dec. 31, 2026. MDT also offers peer-to-peer teen traffic safety grants of up to $1,000 for student-led campaigns, including efforts to reduce distracted driving and speeding.

Parents are a central part of the fix, officials say. MDT urges adults to model safe driving, set rules and keep monitoring teen behavior after a full license is issued. In Montana, graduates of the Alive at 25 program, a National Safety Council defensive-driving course used with support from Montana Highway Patrol and MDT, can also be ordered by judges for drivers 25 and under as part of a response to careless driving.

For families in Helena, East Helena, Lincoln and Wolf Creek, the message is direct: the most preventable crash risk on the road is the one in a driver’s hand.