a long awaited valentine's dinner set the stage for the crash that killed ashley stewart. it was an unforgiving winding road that played its own role in the tragedy. >> traffic happens quite a bit and then suddenly you're in rural parts of the county where you're comfortable kind of letting go. you stopped paying attention to all those rules that you know you should. >> reporter: maryland state troopers have handled 19 accidents in harford county alone. the sheriff's office has responded to more. that's 22 more as many as the county suffered threw loose year -- through last year. >> nine out of the 22 are those

between 19 and 30. >> reporter: law enforcements a issued more than 3,000 traffic tickets. they hope they will react to a hit to their pocket book. >> right now harford county -- we're ranked fifth for traffic fatalities for the year. we don't want this holiday season to bring anymore heartbreak oar in addition to the fatal accident, harford county witnessed almost 2500 nonfatal accidents, which is about 53 per week. anne arundel police released this sketch. this is the sketch of a man who is believed to have raped a woman early this morning. she met him and he sexually assaulted her and took off running. police say the suspect as twists in his hair -- has twists in his

hair and a tattoo on his neck. an abc2 news investigation. here's wyatt. let's look at it. the bottom line, things are still dry, although clouds have begun to push in out of the west. temperatures near 50. this evening 40s, overcast, on the cool side. we'll talk more about when we will likely see rain. that and your weekend coming up. back in october, we told you about how the feds released social security numbers after you die. those numbers are available online but not anymore, at least not on one major source. joce sterman is here to explain why. >> those valuable numbers are part of databases putting you at risk for identity thefts.

weeks after the investigation one popular website as locked them down. ancestry.com is one place you can track down numbers, but now the company, accord topping its website, has moved it behind a pay wall for members and taken another big step to protect oift -- oat -- identity theft for the dead. as we explained in september, it has been a key tool for identity thieves to steal personal information. days after our investigation, senator bill nelson of florida met with the social security add help strags to immediately -- administration to immediately stop. joce sterman, abc2 news.

>> greatk. police in anne arundel county need your help. this man is accused of making two fake wire transferred at the sun trust bank. he used a customer's i.d. and a fake i.d. with the customer's information. if you know this man, call anne arundel police. we all drive by boarded up homes and wonder why don't theyer that them down. they're doing that in park heights. >> reporter: in about a year's time a street full of burned out and vandalized homes will become a place of hope. green space and chance to revitalize the neighborhood. in its place a new ball field about go up, the center place

for a planned park, putting the park back in park heights with funding from the state, cal ripken foundation and others. >> 100,000 square feet of recreational space. over time we will create a seven-acre park that will include a new playground, circulation path. i'm shower that means running path or walking path. we know that everything will do. basketball courts and other amenities. these playing fields will make park heights one of the greenest and healthiest communities in our city. >> the city hopes to have all the land cleared by the end of the year. we'll have more on the neighborhood reaction coming up at 6:00. roosevelt leftwich. >> put the park back into the park heights. for all of you wondering

where are the single people, where are the married people? fewer people are saying "i do." more are saying "we don't." >> marriage isn't the priority it used to be. the latest data shows the number of people getting hitched is at a record low. 51% had a ring last year, down 10 years ago when r5 7% were married. it's a sharp drop from the 1960s when three quarters of the population had a spowssments a big factor is a struggling economy. more couples are living together first. in many cases one person lost a job or can't afford two separate places. people with a college degree have a higher likelihood of getting married. also, the whole attitude about

the institution of marriage is changing. also, social pressures aren't as overbearing as they were and younger americans aren't in any rush to settle down. on the flip side numerous studies have found that married people are better off. plus, they get financial benefits. during the holidays, many of us worry about random creams -- crimes. how baltimore police are working to prevent incidents from happening. holiday decorations can be pretty but can be dapping for your family. and the right track when it comes to education.

j

you only get one crack at a good education. the ymca opened its first educational center. >> reporter: here at the y journey's educational center in towson, children are settling in to their new surroundings. they opened it to better serve children and their families. >> we know that kids who have a very well designed, very caring early childhood experience are going to do well in school. they will be ready in school. we think it's our obligation. >> reporter: the new sthrs has six -- center has six classrooms and it offers more space to educate youngsters. >> this is not sitting kids in chairs and drilling them. this is giving them opportunities and hands-on

experiences so they learn by doing. >> reporter: research shows kids develop most rapidly from zero to five. the early childhood development center uses the preschool sequence a curriculum based on the latest research and offers guidelines for teaching and helps teachers create, implement and review instructional material for children. majority enter kindergarten ready and prepared and parents are impressed by the results they see. >> they would come home from the program and they are in an environment where i felt they were safe. they were happy and stimulated and learning and that they were hungry to do that. so it was exciting to see how that has translated into them moving into kindergarten. >> reporter: thanks to a good

early educational foundation, these students are on the right track for academic success. >> they operate traditional early learning centers and head starts servicing 1500 kids in the region. all right. a pretty mild afternoon, but the clouds did begin to thicken up. still dry. the winds are light out of the south, southeast. temperatures just below that 50 degrees mark. a relatively mild december. clouds pretty thick, pretty steady. we had a few sunny peeks at times. this is from the maryland science center and the camera in bel air providing a great view

of downtown with a couple breaks of sunshine, not much. same deal in damascus where there was very limited sunshine but for all the people scurrying about, at least the roads were dry. maryland's most powerful radar shows not a thing. maybe one isolated shower northern harford county but most of the precip north of the pennsylvania line towards orstown. temperatures running in the upper 40s to 47 at the beach. what little wind we have is out of the south, southeast. it's a warming breeze. you can see the effects on high temperatures which did get up to 53 in downtown baltimore. so that's a good six, seven degrees above average depending on where you were. tomorrow warmer sti. the chance for rain goes up. 57 in federal hill. further south towards the

annapolis area, east port 47. edge water should be close to 50. a couple showers extreme western maryland. what's going on is a big high pressure dome sitting across the eastern part of north carolina. it's still positioned close enough to scurry a lot of the showers off to the north and west, keeping us on the dry side. that begins to change as the high pressure bubble finally pushes off over the atlanta waters. by tomorrow, 4, 5, 6:00, could see a couple showers. scattered showers tomorrow afternoon and evening. then we dry out friday as the boundary stalls out south of us. it may stay towards the virginia beach area. that's where the rain would end up. overnight 38, cloudy skies will not be as cold overnight as last night when we saw some 20s on

the map. 56 and a good chance for scattered showers after 2:00 or 3:00. those could linger. could be damp on the roads for the evening commute. the showers come to an and late tomorrow night. your seven-day forecast, bottom line as advertised, a mild but showery kind of day tomorrow. into friday breezy and variably cloudy. looks like more sunshine for the weekend but still a colder setup. we'll be down to the low to mid-40s. a little cooler saturday and sunday. >> i'm surprising you with this. the betting line of the northeast cities with snow on christmas. i wouldn't tell you until the next hit. i want you to tell me if you think yea or nay.

who's the most fascinating person you met this year? you're always throwing these consider of balls. yourself? >> the 10 most fast meat inning -- fascinating people of 2011. it will be good. the most fascinating people, ready for this, the kardashian family, new york yankee derek jeter. modern family's eric stone street. >> there were times when i would be called names, pinned against the fence with my jacket and left out there after the recess bell and the teacher had to come find me. >> is it because you were gay? >> i had red hair, wore glass. some kids probably knew i was gay. >> you can watch the special

tonight. modern family at 9:00 followed by barbara walters presents at 9:30 and abc2 news at 11:00. from lib yay to wall street, no doubt this was the year of protests. the protester is named the person of the year. the runner up was the three-star general involved in osama bin laden's raid and he kept the president up to date on the operation. some flight attendants are not happy with actor alec baldwin. now they want his show "30 rock" taken off the american airlines flight. last week he was kicked off when he refused to turn off his

phone. the union said it would take back its petition and remove 30 rock from shows if alec apologized. many kids have free qent trips to the hospital because of an overdose. how the league plans to protect players from head injuries. i'm kevin olson out of kuwait. ed with' lick to wish everybody back home a happy holiday. >> happy holidays!

listen to these numbers from the centers of disease control

and prevention. officials say each year 1 in 150 2-year-olds are rushed to the hospital because of an unintentional overdose. that has gone up from a few years ago. store medicine in a place children cannot reach or see. consider all supplements and medicine a potential hazard. even vitamins have the potential to cause deadly or bad harm. be vigilant about the safety cap and make sure this clicks shut every time. let's talk about concussions. we've seen them in football, hockey and baseball. now the nba is starting to protect players. they will check the brain and if an athlete gets a concussion, he will have to go through tests to confirm he's okay to go back on the court. during the test, the brain is

stretched and twisted and with rest damaged cells can heal but when a second concussion happens soon after, that's when we see permanent damage. >> the long-term consequences can be pretty significant. they can add structural damage to the brain. that reminds us, we're working for you. we have a complete concussion resource gie.d parent, coaches athletes can learn how to play the game safely. just go to abc2news.com/concussion for more information. working moms, did you know you are happier and healthier than your stay at home moms? this is according to researchers at the university of north

carolina. they looked at data from more than 1400 moms. moms who worked full or part-time jobs were less depressed or healthier in general. moms who worked part-time were also able to balance their life. a police officer obviously makes a wrong turn somewhere. what the office are said was the blame for crashing this cruiser into a pole. the folks at lexington market got a performance from the harlem globetrotters.

an uptick in domestic

violence. now baltimore county is trying to help. the tree is up. the lights are hung and the present are wrapped. are you overlooking a hazard. abc2 is working for you. we put some of the hottest video games to the test with the help of some local kids. it's not so much the random violent crime you should fear this holiday season. it's the crimes committed by the ones we love. that was the emergency from baltimore county officials. brian kuebler has more. >> reporter: baltimore county leaders were lined up, armed with facts and warnings. the holidays are particularly stressful, which can serve as a catalyst for domestic violence. it was one woman's story that made the point. with her parents in the room, she told the audience of her abusive husband. >> he shot and murdered my two

beautiful children. richie was shot in the chest and died immediately. destiny suffered for eight long hours before they found her. the police told me she asked for her mommy. >> reporter: it's a story maryland wouldn't soon for get. september 1999 whenly is a killed the children over a brejt an especially gruesome cream but one that should give pause. >> people end up believing that random violent crime is what they most have to fear. the fact is many violent crimes are of people we know, who we love and care about. >> reporter: the department cited them as an example and said holiday stress can lead to more cases of domestic violence. the county health department named it the too much syndrome. >> the