Stutsman County Officers Join Statewide Distracted Driving Crackdown This April

A single glance at a phone notification is all it takes: North Dakota Highway Patrol Captain Bryan Niew put it plainly when the campaign launched. "It may not be your intention to drive distracted, but one notification on your phone can cause a crash," Niew said. That warning now carries a concrete consequence for anyone driving in Jamestown or Stutsman County this month.

The Stutsman County Sheriff's Office and Jamestown Police joined law enforcement agencies statewide in launching stepped-up patrols for all of April under the national campaign "Put the Phone Away or Pay," coordinated through Vision Zero, North Dakota's road-safety initiative. Officers are specifically watching for handheld phone use and texting behind the wheel, the behaviors most likely to trigger a stop. A citation costs $100 for adult drivers. Teen drivers under 18 face a $20 fine plus four points on their driving record for any electronic device use, a combination that can accelerate toward license suspension.

The stakes on rural roads like I-94 through Stutsman County are particularly high. In 2024, North Dakota recorded a lane departure crash roughly every two hours, and those crashes disproportionately injure people in rural areas. Justin Bailey, the North Dakota DOT's safety public information program manager, explained the connection directly: "Lane departure crashes are the number one cause of injury in rural areas. Whenever somebody leaves that lane, usually that drift is caused by somebody on their phone." Statewide, preliminary Vision Zero data counted 936 distracted driving-related crashes in 2024, resulting in 12 deaths and 43 serious injuries. NDDOT research puts distracted drivers at 23 times greater risk of crashing or nearly crashing compared to attentive drivers.

To stay out of those numbers and avoid a ticket, drivers should stow phones out of reach before pulling out of a driveway, not just silence them. Using a vehicle's built-in navigation rather than a handheld map app, designating a passenger to handle calls, and pre-programming a destination before departure are all habits officers and safety officials say reduce the temptation to glance down. For parents of teen drivers, this month is a practical moment to set explicit rules: no phone in hand, ever, not even at a red light.

Vision Zero is also encouraging drivers to take the "Buckle Up Phone Down" pledge, committing to both seat belt use and distraction-free driving on every trip. Enforcement will remain elevated through April 30.