BLOOMINGTON - Emily Hayes, who received her learner's permit Thursday, will be behind the wheel with her father by her side this weekend.

She knows not to drive while tired, distracted or intoxicated, but a national survey Normal Community High School students helped to create showed many others do not.

Hayes was among 140 NCHS student drivers who received their permits Thursday. Along with handing out the permits, her driving instructor, Chuck Fisher, read aloud some of the findings from the National Teen Driver Survey by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Cos.

"It all started right here," Fisher said of the scientific survey, which asked 5,600 U.S. public high school students what their peers do behind the wheel that makes them unsafe.

Last year, NCHS student drivers provided feedback on how the survey questions were worded before the survey was distributed nationally.

"We had a part to play in this," Fisher told the class.

The survey showed almost all teens have seen classmates speed or drive with distractions, such as loud music, disruptive passengers and cell phones. Almost half have seen teens driving under the influence of alcohol; a third have seen other teens driving after smoking marijuana.

Fisher said the survey is important because parents don't really know what teen drivers are thinking, and this information should change that.

"We stress here that parents should be involved," he said.

Hayes, 15, said she was surprised to see that so many teens - 75 percent - reported driving while tired.

Students may be driving after sporting events at night or when they are barely awake in the morning, Fisher said.

Ridgeview High School driving instructor Mike Ayers said he didn't realize how many students have late-night or early-morning jobs and drive tired - until last year.

Two Ridgeview High School students, Dean McLeod and Kyle Wargo, died in single-car accidents within the last two years. Officials determined they had been driving while tired because of their jobs.

The school in Colfax since has instituted a safe-driving program, Drive Kool, in honor of the two teens. It includes a campaign to use seat belts, Ayers said.

Local teens agreed with the national survey finding that fewer teens are driving drunk.

Local student surveys at both Ridgeview and NCHS also showed considerably more students use seatbelts here than the 65 percent reported in the national survey.

Hayes saw the survey early because her father works at State Farm and left it on the counter at home a few days ago.

"I don't think he's worried about me," she said. "He's worried about the people I ride with who are just getting their licenses now, too."

Last year, 21 teens in the United States died every day as a result of car accidents, Fisher told students.

Hayes said statistics like that helped her understand why attention is being paid to teen driving.

She said she also understood the tougher requirements proposed by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White earlier this week. His proposal would toughen rules for new drivers, including extending time they drive with a permit from three to nine months, doubling the number of months to one year they can drive with only one unrelated teen passenger, and making parents appear in court with their teens if the young drivers get tickets.

Driving instructors said they are pleased with proposals to toughen driver safety laws to protect teens.

It's helpful any time teens get more supervised driving time behind the wheel, said Neal Roach, driving instructor for Tri-Valley High School, Downs.