Some things just have to be said. And said. And said again.

Don’t walk on thin ice.

Don’t speed on a snowmobile. Or in a car.

Wear reflective clothing if you’re going to walk in the street at night.

Take a map on cross-country ski trails.

The difference between careful and careless can, as we’ve seen repeatedly in Maine, be deadly.

Last March, after five snowmobilers died over a span of four days, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife issued a warning for sledders to slow down. Most of the snowmobile deaths in Maine last winter were caused by speed.

It’s just common sense knowing that much of Maine’s wooded trails, established well before snowmobiles were engineered to zoom in excess of 100 mph, cannot be safely navigated at top speeds. Too bad common sense can’t be doled out like ice cream.

There were 12 people killed on snowmobiles last year, and two have already died this year. Both of the recent dead were teenage boys and both were speeding.

Derek Benner of Cushing, who was 19, was speeding on a paved road and either fell or was thrown from his machine, and then hit by a car on Dec. 22.

Kyle Rogers of Windham, who was 15, crashed his snowmobile into a tree in Portage while traveling with a group of eight riders speeding in the freezing rain on Saturday.

These boys did not have to die, but too few wardens patrolling too many trails leads people to take risk under the guise of fun.

Sort of like people driving vehicles out on to thin ice, despite repeated and vocal warnings – again – from IF&W that much of the ice in Maine is not safe, especially after the weekend rains.

Or, in the case of a recent warning from the U.S. Coast Guard, for newbie kayakers to resist taking their Christmas-gift boats out on the open ocean. The inaugural paddle can wait for summer and warmer water.

In Lewiston, the City Council recently made the curious decision not to enforce an ordinance requiring property owners to shovel snow from sidewalks, creating undue and undeserved danger for pedestrians who will be forced to walk in the street. For walkers, especially at night, reflective gear is a must.

In reaching its decision to give property owners a bye on this ordinance, the City Council was trying to be “nice,” but, in so doing, has endangered pedestrians in a city that is trying to promote public health and walkability.

It might serve taxpayers well for the council to take another gander at this poor decision before someone, who could have been safely walking on a shoveled sidewalk, is hit by a car. And who, once recovered, will almost certainly turn around and sue the property owner for not shoveling and the city for knowing nonenforcement of the ordinance.

Winter in Maine is dangerous, but it doesn’t have to be ridiculously dangerous if we each exercise a little common sense. If not, Benner and Rogers are just the painful start of the list of fatalities.