A red Ford Escort car ended up in Trumbull Creek Wednesday afternoon after colliding with the guardrail while driving eastbound on U.S. Highway 2. The 16-year-old driver from Columbia Falls was taken to the hospital. There were no passengers.

Joe Dodson was driving behind the two-door car when it went off the shoulder of the highway. Dodson said he was going about 60 mph, when he saw a big cloud of dust in front of him.

The car “kicked up all the dust on the side of the road,” Dodson said. “Boom! He hit the guardrail and parts were flying off his vehicle.” The metal was torn from six of the guardrail posts.

The front tire was damaged from the collision with the guardrail, Dodson said. Then the vehicle slid off the road, down the grassy hill and into the creek. The airbags in the car deployed.

No alcohol or drugs were involved, Montana Highway Patrol Rick Mehring said. The trooper talked to the teen before he was treated at the hospital.

The driver was not on his cell phone. It was in his left front pocket during the time of the crash, Mehring said.

“He looked away” and just drove off the roadway, Mehring said. The driver may be ticketed for careless driving. According to witnesses, the driver wasn’t speeding.

The teen was taken out of the vehicle by stretcher and went to the hospital by ambulance. Columbia Falls firefighters and Three Rivers Ambulance responded to the scene.