this is maryland's news station. now eyewitness news magazine. >> hi everyone i am mary bubala. thanks for joining us. when you put your car in reverse a tragedy could be just behind your bumper. tonight wjz investigating the growing number of back up accidentone woman who shares the heart breaking reason she wants all cars to have back up cameras. >> 3-year-old veda dies in her drive way in frederick maryland >> she was the cutest, funniest little girl. my heart breaks for her and always will. >> an suv backing up runs over

her, the driver is her own mother. she thinks her daughter is safely inside the house >> she was running outside to tell my sister something. >> what happened that morning is a tragedy that plays out at least twice a week across the country. in 70% of these back up accidents a parent or relative is behind the wheel >> it is still so hard for your sister to even talk about what has happened >> it wasn't a car accident it was much worse than a car accident. the only person my sister could blame was herself and that is what she did. >> melissa's sister begged her to warn others about the danger lurking behind their wheel. >> she said please make sure this doesn't happen. you can do that. i know you can do that. >> just last month, a man pulling out of a parking space nevoses 5-year-old somaya. >> she is my only child i will never get her back. >> between 2006 and 2010 nearly

450 children died in back up axe departments. that is more than twice the number killed in the previous five years. >> even in small to mid-sized suvs like this one there are big blind spots. in the side view mirror all is clear nothing in the rear-view mirror either but if i actually backed up right now look at what is at risk, this stroller, right in the blind spot. which is easy to see with this rear view camera. if you drive a minivan your blind spot is up to 28 feet and an suv 39, and if you are at the wheel of a truck it can be a whopping 50 feet. >> it can happen to anybody, any where, any time. your kids, someone else's. >> back up cameras are now standard in nearly half of all new vehicles but veda's family wants cameras in all of them >> it is frustrating i figure by now this would have been done. >> president bush signed a law, requiring back up cams in all new vehicles by beginning of this year but the government

delayed it to do more studies. >> the big has been passed. make it happen. >> a one size fits all solution would not make sense for different vehicles. triple-a supports back up cameras across the board. >> certainly a combination of to the supplemental tool, the back up cameras and the turning your head and looking we believe will go a far step in the right direction. >> why do you thing it is taking so long for the government to take action. >> they want to review more statistics, how many more kids need to die. all it takes is one moment, not knowing what is behind your car. >> auto industry estimates back up cameras will add $200 to the cost of cars that don't already have navigation screens the government hopes to make them standard on all vehicles in the 2014 year. >> two social workers who saved a baby's life reveal what really happened when a mother stabbed her daughter before

their eyes. mike takes us inside the chaos. >> reporter: the ther fying moments still haunt the day hayes was monitoring a routine visit between a mom and her baby, a girl named pretty diamond. they were inside a conference room at baltimore's social services complex when all hell broke loose. >> security i had a lady just stab her baby. >> reporter: the mom grab add knife and began stabbing the infant. >> this lady is dangerous. >> reporter: hayes screamed. >> oh, my god, god help god help. >> reporter: short, her friend and coworker leapt into action taking a chair and throwing it at the mom before she could stab the baby again. >> i was totally scared and i just -- that just -- i had to act you know, it is real. and it is a baby.

>> knowing if you don't act, this could be it for that innocent baby. >> you don't have time to think about your safety. time just stopped. >> what was going through your mind. >> i have a niece that is that old, and looking at her, i just thought about my niece, it is like a calling from god you know, you are in the right place at the right time. >> reporter: short restrained the out of control mom who charges documents reveal bit him and threatened to kill the child saying if i can't have her no body will. the infant was rushed to a waiting ambulance. >> what do you think about people calling you heros. >> for me it is humbling, a very humbling experience. >> does anything ever prepare you for what happened here? >> you are never really prepared. you can't look at a child in danger, and walk away. >> you have no options. you have to do what you have to do. and i think anybody in those circumstances would have done that. >> not a day goes by without

replaying the whole thing in my mind. i probably will never forget. >> neither will forget the moment they learned the baby was going to live. >> the time where i felt that i really wanted to cry was when they said she was okay >> i felt like 10,000 bricks were just removed off of my shoulders. >> this experience has made me stronger, and a better person, and the end result, is pretty diamond and she is okay. >> wjz eyewitness news. pretty diamond is recovering and out of the hospital, her mother is charged with attempted murder. well, still ahead on this edition of eyewitness news magazine ... >> wedge investigates, i am jessica car talia what it is like sitting in the drivers seat and seeing things through the eyes of a senior driver. next. >> twin murder mystery.

i am denise koch a columbia i am denise koch a columbia teen is killed his identical a team that shares my drive and commitment. that's why i serve in the united states coast guard. maybe you were born ready. find out at gocoastguard.com.

twin tragedy a columbia teen is killed the suspect his identical twin brother. now an amazing story about murder, imprisonment and freedom. denise koch with wyella lee who tells his incredible story. >> reporter: identical twins, mirror images. >> not just another brother relationship, it is other person looks just like me. >> reporter: so close they are almost like one. >> we were a team we did everything together. >> reporter: but this twin tale turns tragic when one ends up dead and the other is accused of killing him. >> when you thing life couldn't get any worse than losing your twin brother you find yourself in jail >> in jail for his murder >> right

>> i could imagine what my parents went through losing one son, and i can't imagine what they were feeling, with the possibility of losing another one. >> reporter: the last time he saw his brother alive was at the mall in columbia, in august 2007. they hung out here all the time. he left and his brother said he would call him soon for a ride. that call never came. >> after that first hour i started getting worried. >> reporter: after five desperate days police discover his body near a secluded path a few miles from the mall. police say he had been murdered. >> a fog of just sadness and misery >> i don't think anyone who is not an identical twin can understand what you are saying. >> for so many years i couldn't look at myself in the mirror i couldn't stop thing about us and what we were to each other and the plans that we had. >> detectives questioned him about his brothers death. four years passed with no suspects. early one morning last fall, his world gets rocked again. >> i see flashlights at my back

door. i hear like police radio chatter, they just come rushing in, like 20, 25 of them. >> reporter: police arrest him charging him with murdering his twin brother >> did they ever grill you and say did you do this and you said no. >> i told them three times i think he asked me and i said no. >> the case focuses on inconsistencies in his statements to police. the jury is not convinced and conot reach a verdict the judge declares a mistrial all charges are dropped. >> i can say as a mother of twins, do you talk to your brother? >> i used to pray every single day god would just let him come to me in a dream, three months into me being in jail, for the first time, in four years i dreamed of my brother he said it is going to be okay. >> hours later the judge kiss miss the case and he walks out of the jail into the arms of

his family. >> it was great to kiss and hug my mom again >> know you are free. >> know i am free and it is over. >> meanwhile whatever did happen to your brother. >> now will never be known. unsolved. >> denise koch, wjz eyewitness news. prosecutors tell him and his attorney they will not try him gain. when an older driver hits and kills a johns hopkins student his parents target people they believe should no longer get behind the wheel. tonight wjz investigatings, jessica looks at controversy over testing older drivers. >> reporter: no one knew this ride home from the farmers market would be the last for 20- year-old nathan. now his parents only have pictures to remember their gifted middle child. >> just heart breaking. we really thought nathan would figure out a solution to some world problem,. >> reporter: rideling down

university parkway last february an 83-year-old driver turns into nathan's path as she pulls into her drive way. nathan tumbles over her car and trapped underneath, stunned she gets out of the car and sits down. >> minutes and minutes are going by, and with each passing minute he is losing his brain cells. >> reporter: after 6 agonizing months waiting for nathan to come out of a coma, his parents make the hardest of choices taking him off life support. >> this is an example of older people being in denial about their abilities. >> reporter: mitchell and susan believe some older drivers shouldn't be behind the wheel they want the state to require them to take competency tests currently 27 states and the district of columbia require additional testing. >> you are not saying get these people off the road all together. >> we just want to get the risky drivers off the road. >> john spent decades developing plans for driver retesting for the government but overtime, realized forcing

a competency test on an older driver is bad idea. >> testing is unfair. we have really really refined tools, really really target in and find quote unquote the bad apples that would be one thing but we don't have those >> drivers 65 and older have fewer fatal accidents but also drive less, when you consider the number of miles they drive, to the fatal accident rate increases by the time they are 80 it is four times higher >> i believe there is many drivers on the road today who don't have what it takes to drive safely. >> to denying we go through physical changes as we age. >> changes in vision, hearing can be diminished which can effect their ability to hear sirendifferent warning signals they may begin to have problems with reflex time. >> start driving nice and easy. >> a simulator at national academy of sciences shows

differences between a typical drivers vision and that of an older driver. >> grey out the side windows everything in front just isn't as vivid. >> nathan's parents say re- evaluating older drivers could save lives. >> do you think we need to do this so that another family doesn't have to go through what you are going through? >> this tragedy didn't need to happen. if we are successful this is something that will save a lot of heart ache among many many different people. >> wjz eyewitness news. several area programs allow seniors to test their driving skill, and help them adjust to physical changes for drivers 85 and older, the fatality rate in accidents skyrockets to four time that is of teens usually considered the most risky driving group. still ahead,. waiting and worrying i am dick carter a maryland family copes while their father and husband, sits behind bars in a cuban jail.

that story coming up. >> what happens when bullying goes viral.

it is bullying taken to a whole new level, cyber bullying allows millions of people to witness some body's humiliation on the internet. a young maryland teen tells denise koch it happened to him and you will hear why his life has never been the same.

>> reporter: you are looking at the face of a new kind of victim, young people who kill themselves when cyber bullies make life unbearable. >> this has got to stop. >> reporter: easter sunday, howard county it happens again. 15-year-old grace takes her own life, her parents blame cyber bullies who preyed on her for months. >> harassment, once limited to hallwayclassroomplaygrounds, now floods cyber space. 8 out of 10 teens admit they have been victims of online bullying. >> reporter: 14-year-old darren king was bullied at school for years. >> taunting and toasting he has been bullied on and off since fourth grade. >> reporter: a fight video from his middle school in southern maryland went viral. one day he got fed up and threw a punch. another student, videotaped him getting beat up. >> no body hear this is commotion. >> this kid posted on facebook,

fights on twitter too you guys. >> reporter: how do you feel about the fact that video is out there. >> mad >> this is not okay. this is not the way you treat another person. >> reporter: darren's mom says nine days after the fight the school told her the video was taken down >> that wasn't the case because two weeks later i am still finding it on twitter and youtube and facebook. >> reporter: the video was eventually taken down but fall out from the cyber bullying changed darren he still loves exploring the woods behind his moment, riding his bike, playing ball but won't go to school any more because of bullying >> i would really like him to be able to enjoy a public education without having fears. >> reporter: his feelings are normal with reports of online harassment skyrocketing around the world. a national expert on cyber bullying says this very public humiliation is devastating. >> one of the big featuresover the internet is it kind of distances us from being able to see the impact of our actions. >> reporter: the controversial

movie bully shows these fights happen a lot at school. the law is really very clear, that schools can intervene if students are attacking other students. >> reporter: were you afraid to go back to school in that you might get beat up again? >> yeah. >> reporter: you felt in danger. >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: that is hard as a mother. >> yes. >> reporter: what do you do? >> i want everybody to be aware. you want to post something on the internet would you want your name in that comment, would you want yourself in that video if you don't, don't post it. >> reporter: denise koch, wjz eyewitness news. maryland's department of education says schools can demand, removal of postings if they interfere with education or psychological or well being. a maryland family, caught up in an international nightmare. convicted of spike, alan gross sits in a cuban -- spying, alan

gross sits in a cuban prison. >> reporter: two years, five months, six days, baltimore native, alan gross, wastes away behind bars in a cuban prison. >> to see him getting more depressed, weak era very helpless feeling. >> reporter: in a rare interview, judy gross shares her deepest fears she admits she worries whether her 63-year- old husband will ever come home to his loving family. >> do i ever thinkly see him on u.s. soil? some times i doubt it. >> reporter: are you worried about his health deter rating. >> absolutely. >> reporter: so you are worried he might die there. >> think about it a lot. >> reporter: he still has 12 years left he always insisted he went to cuba to improve internet access for the small jewish community there. >> in your opinion did he ever break the law. >> we know now he did break cuban law, he did not know that, until he got to cuba, and was arrested. >> reporter: since his arrest

more than two years ago the world's most powerful leaders have been pushing for his release but cuba hasn't budged. >> is there anything more you thing can be done to help secure his release? >> my hope right now is just that they will allow him to come home to visit his mother. >> his 90-year-old mother is dying of lung cancer his family is begging the cuban government for a humanitarian release. >> she cries every day i talk to her she is not going to see her son. it is inhumane. >> reporter: the cuban government has allowed judy to visit alan in prison. making plans for another trip plus weekly phone callletters keep her going. >> that is what is so ironic i talk to him and it feels like he is right there and then i have to remember, no, he is pretty far away. >> to keep alan close she rereeds his letters like this emotional thanksgiving note to his daughters. >> in all honesty i cannot remember the last time we were

all together, so despite all of our circumstances and distant locations, at least this year i can write, say to you that we still have so much to be thankful for we still have each other. >> vick carter, wjz eyewitness news. alan promises to return to cuba to finishes his sentence if he is allowed to visit his mother recently cuba said it will consider setting gross free in exchange for five spies arrested in jail in the u.s.

>> they are some of maryland's oldst living things despite centuries of growth, alex reports, the state's old growth hemlocks are being threatened by an invasive bug, the size of a poppy seed. >> reporter: you have to get off the main road at new germany state park in garrett county to reach those performing a kind of tree, triage only in this case, the medicine is pesticide. >> the chemical will be released into the tree slowly through the injectors. >> reporter: the trees are old growth hemlock and maryland's departments of agriculture and natural resources, aim to save most of them >> i am hoping by the end of the day we have 4,000. >> reporter: takes a trip to the internet to see the enemy the size of a popty seed, hwa

beetle settles in and protects itself. >> it is a wax they produce, out of their backs and sides. >> reporter: inside those tiny wax shelters the beetle is sucking the trees nutrients, destroying new growth >> kills the tree. >> reporter: so the hemlocks are being given a shot of poison, to kill the beetles from inside out. injectors go into shallow holes, air pressure provides force as each injector valve is open the tree receives a shot at life from a beet that will found its way here in a tree imported from japan. winter usually kills up to 80% of the beetles, usually. >> this warm went they are year, i've seen less than 10% of the population die. protecting these trees not only saves habitat but keep it is past alive. >> it is nice to save these trees a lot of these are old growth hemlock they have been here for 300 plus years. so it is really part of american history. wjz eyewitness news.

besides their historic significance. they provide critical shade and food along trout streams in western maryland. the oldest record hemlock is 554 years old. thanks for joining us for this edition of eyewitness news magazine. i am mary bubala, have a greatening

hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios i'm one of six children that my mother raised by herself, and so college was a dream when i was a kid.

i didn't know how i was gonna to do it, but i knew i was gonna get that opportunity one day, and that's what happened with university of phoenix. i feel like the sky's the limit with what i can do and what i can accomplish. my name is naphtali bryant and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu/maryland to find our 4 locations in your area