Merinda Thompson, 40

Merinda Pietrafitta Thompson, 40, had been running for less than a year when she came in second in her age group in her first race, a 5-kilometer event in early February.

"She would run at lunchtime when she worked from home," a brother, John Pietrafitta, said.

On Monday afternoon, March 4, the mother of two sons was jogging along the shoulder of North Lewis Road in Limerick Township when she was hit from behind and fatally injured by a swerving car, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said in a news release.

Mrs. Thompson was running north on the shoulder facing southbound traffic when a northbound car "crossed over into the southbound lane and then partially off the road," striking her, Ferman said.

"The car then struck a utility pole before coming to rest," Ferman said.

The identity of the 18-year-old male driver has not been released and there has been no announcement of any charges. Police took blood samples and his cellphone, which he had declined to surrender at the scene.

The District Attorney's Office and Limerick police are continuing an investigation.

John Pietrafitta, a supervisor for the Philadelphia Parking Authority, said his sister, with her husband, Donald, were raising two boys, Christian, 6, and Michael, 10.

"She lived for her children and her family," John said.

Mrs. Thompson, who turned 40 in late February, was a senior software engineer for Linear Acoustic in Lancaster, where she had worked for the last four years, sometimes in the office and sometimes from home.

She was the eldest of three children.

Her brother Joseph, an investment adviser who is the youngest of the three, said, "You could call at midnight, my sister would be there for you."

Born in Philadelphia, she was a 1990 graduate of what is now SS. Neumann Goretti High School in South Philadelphia and earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1995 from Drexel University.

"She could take anything apart," her brother John said, "and put it back together."

After college, she worked for about four years as a software engineer for a biochemical technology firm, her brother John said, "and then stayed home as a mom for a few years."

The Thompson family had lived in Royersford since April 2000, he said.

Mrs. Thompson had played varsity softball in high school, John said, and was "very athletic," often taking her sons skiing in the Poconos.

Besides her husband, sons and brothers, she is survived by her parents, Merinda and John.

Services are to be private.