I hope one of your resolutions is to make 2013 safer than 2012.  Consumer Reports has come up with a list of 10 valuable safety tips that I hope you will take  minute to read.  Some of the tips are expected, like the advice to wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle and the recommendation to wear a seat belt.

But a couple of the other tips were less obvious.  For example, CR suggest that you stop at all stop signs and red lights.  This is (or should be) obvious also.  But what many of you may not know is that 676 people were killed in 2009 because drivers did not stop at red lights.   That number was very surprising to me.   That’s just a staggering number of deaths from a very specific, and preventable, careless act.

Also, yielding to pedestrians and bicycles takes on even more importance when you consider that 12 percent of motor vehicle deaths involve pedestrians and 2 percent involve bicycles.  Folks on bikes and pedestrians are vulnerable and we should all be extra careful driving around them.

Please read these valuable safety tips and let’s make 2013 the safest year yet.