A Montana DUI is about your condition behind the wheel. Reckless driving and careless driving are about the way you drove. Negligent endangerment and criminal endangerment are about the risk you created for someone else. The differences decide what the State must prove and what a conviction costs. This page compares them. It is part of our Montana DUI Guide.
The Five Offenses Side by Side
| Offense | MCA | What the State must prove | Penalty | Points and license |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DUI | § 61-8-1002 | Driving or actual physical control while under the influence, or at or above a prohibited level. No mental state required. | First offense: up to 6 months and a $600 to $1,000 fine, with a 24-hour minimum on the impairment theory (§ 61-8-1007). | 10 points. License suspended 6 months on a first conviction. |
| Reckless driving | § 61-8-301 | Operating a vehicle in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property. | First conviction: up to 90 days, a $100 to $500 fine, or both. Later convictions: 5 days to 6 months, $500 to $1,000, or both (§ 61-8-715). | 5 points. Suspension only for three reckless driving offenses within 12 months. |
| Careless driving | § 61-8-302 | Failing to drive in a careful and prudent manner that does not unduly or unreasonably endanger others. | First conviction: a fine of $10 to $100. If death or serious bodily injury results: up to $5,000, up to 6 months, or both (§§ 61-8-711, 61-8-716). | Not named in the point schedule. No suspension stated for a single conviction. |
| Negligent endangerment | § 45-5-208 | Negligently engaging in conduct that creates a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another. | A fine up to $1,000, county jail up to 1 year, or both. | A criminal code offense, not a traffic code offense. |
| Criminal endangerment | § 45-5-207 | Knowingly engaging in conduct that creates a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another. | A fine up to $50,000, state prison up to 10 years, or both. | A felony-level penalty. A high alcohol concentration alone is not enough to support the charge. |
Points come from the habitual traffic offender schedule in MCA § 61-11-203. License consequences come from MCA §§ 61-5-205 and 61-5-208.
DUI: Your Condition, Not Your Driving
A DUI requires proof that you drove, or were in actual physical control of, a vehicle while under the influence or with a prohibited alcohol or drug level (MCA § 61-8-1002(1)). The statute imposes absolute liability, so the State does not have to prove any intent or awareness (MCA § 61-8-1002(5)). A person can drive perfectly and still commit the offense. See per se vs. impairment DUI.
A DUI conviction also brings consequences the others do not: a mandatory license suspension on a first conviction (MCA § 61-5-208(2)(b)(i)), a chemical dependency assessment and an education course or treatment (MCA § 61-8-1009(1)), and a sentence that cannot be deferred (MCA § 61-8-1011(4)). It counts as a prior if there is ever another one.
Reckless Driving: Willful or Wanton Disregard
A person commits reckless driving by operating a vehicle "in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property" (MCA § 61-8-301(1)(a)). The focus is the driving itself and the driver's attitude toward the risk. Alcohol is not mentioned in the statute.
The penalty for a first conviction is up to 90 days in jail, a fine of $100 to $500, or both. A second or later conviction is 5 days to 6 months, a fine of $500 to $1,000, or both. If the offense results in death or serious bodily injury, the maximum rises to a $10,000 fine and 1 year (MCA § 61-8-715(1), (2)). Reckless driving is 5 points, and the department must suspend a license only after three reckless driving offenses committed within 12 months (MCA §§ 61-11-203(2)(h), 61-5-205(2)(b)).
Careless Driving: A Lower Standard
The careless driving statute requires a person to drive "in a careful and prudent manner that does not unduly or unreasonably endanger the life, limb, property, or other rights of a person" using the public ways (MCA § 61-8-302(1)). It does not require willfulness.
Careless driving is punished under the general traffic penalty: a fine of $10 to $100 for a first conviction, with higher fines for repeat convictions within a year (MCA § 61-8-711(2)). The exception is serious. If the violation results in death or serious bodily injury, the penalty is a fine up to $5,000, up to 6 months in jail, or both (MCA § 61-8-716(2)). Careless driving is not named in the point schedule. The schedule assigns 2 points to "all other moving violations," which is the category it appears to fall into.
Negligent and Criminal Endangerment
These two are in the criminal code, not the traffic code, and they are not limited to driving.
- Negligent endangerment is negligently engaging in conduct that creates a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another (MCA § 45-5-208). "Negligently" in the criminal code means a gross deviation from the standard of conduct a reasonable person would observe, which the code describes as considerably greater than a lack of ordinary care (MCA § 45-2-101).
- Criminal endangerment requires that the person acted knowingly, and it carries up to 10 years in state prison and a fine up to $50,000 (MCA § 45-5-207). The Legislature wrote a limit into the statute: "A high blood alcohol concentration, alone is not sufficient to support a criminal endangerment charge."
When impaired driving injures someone, a more specific offense exists: negligent vehicular assault (MCA § 45-5-205). See DUI with a crash or a child in the car.
When These Charges Appear Together
An officer who stops a car for dangerous driving and then suspects alcohol may cite both a traffic offense and a DUI. The driving charge needs no test result, and the DUI needs no bad driving, so each can stand without the other. The habitual offender schedule softens the overlap in one respect: when two or more convictions come from a single occurrence, only the conviction with the highest points is counted (MCA § 61-11-203(3)).
Why the Difference Matters in Negotiations
Montana has no special alcohol-related reckless driving charge of the kind some states call a "wet reckless." A DUI may still be resolved by a plea to a lesser or related offense if the prosecutor agrees (MCA § 46-12-211(1)), and reckless driving and careless driving are existing offenses that can serve that purpose. Prosecutors are not required to offer that, and whether one will depends mostly on the strength of the evidence.
The table shows why the difference is significant. A reckless driving conviction is still a criminal conviction with possible jail time. It does not carry the automatic 6-month suspension, the 10 points, or the assessment requirement, and it is not listed as a prior DUI in MCA § 61-8-1011. See reckless driving reductions, plea agreements, and DUI defenses. For how points add up, see habitual traffic offender points.
This page explains Montana law in general as of the 2025 Montana Code Annotated. Insurance and employment effects of each conviction are not covered here. It is not legal advice about your specific case.