BLOOMINGTON - Bill Brady drove out of Central Catholic High School in his jeep and hit a pothole. The vehicle rolled three or four times. Brady, then a student and member of the wrestling team, and his friend were wearing seat belts. Without them, "we would have been one of those casualties," he said.

He survived that accident in the 1970s and went on to be a developer and member of the state Senate. Throughout his political career, he has continued efforts to encourage safe driving, he said.

He returned to his alma mater on Wednesday to congratulate the students behind the Drive Like a Saint and Get There Safe Program. The program was named one of the top 25 of 50 such efforts nationwide in State Farm Insurance Cos.' Project Ignition, which is co-sponsored by the National Youth Leadership Council, started in 2004. It honors student-run campaigns to promote safe driving. The Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley High School team won the top prize in 2005 earning $10,000 for its efforts.

Central Catholic still is in the running to be this year's winner.

At Wednesday's event, John Althoff, sponsorship coordinator in corporate advertising for State Farm, handed the team a giant cardboard check for $2,000 as a reward for their accomplishments, and to help pay for their peer-to-peer safe-driving campaign.

Althoff also had personal reasons for being involved. His oldest son was in an accident six months after getting his driver's license, and he survived because he was wearing a seatbelt.

"I have a passion for this," he told students in the all-school assembly. "Statistics show that car crashes are the biggest killers of 15- to-20-year olds."

Fifty schools nationwide accepted State Farm's invitation to design safe-driving campaigns for Project Ignition. Twenty-five were chosen and given money to further develop their campaigns.

If Central Catholic makes the next cut to the top 10 in November, the team will receive $5,000 more and a trip to Albuquerque, N.M., for the finals. The national winner will receive $10,000.

Sarah Lockenvitz is one of about a dozen students working on the project. She has taken driver's education and plans to get her driver's license in November.

"It was devastating to see the drunk-driving accidents," the sophomore said of her driver's education program taught by Chuck Fisher.

Fisher has taught driver education at Central Catholic for two years and also teaches it at Normal Community High School.

"I've heard great things about the tradition here," he said, adding, "I've also noticed some driving habits in the parking lots that can be improved."

Fisher's NCHS class also participated in Project Ignition. It didn't make it to the top 10, but the students did increase seatbelt usage among NCHS students to 92 percent, which is well above the statewide average of 80 percent, he said.

On the net

www.sfprojectignition.com

Driving tips

- Be mature behind the wheel

- Always wear a seatbelt

- Slow down; speed increases chances for injury and damage

- Avoid distractions, such as adjusting stereos, eating while driving, using cell phones

- Avoid alcohol. One-fourth of all teens killed in crashes have blood alcohol levels above 0.10.