Mar 22, 2012 2 min read

A 2 ½ year old boy in the backseat of a vehicle that was hit by a UPS tractor trailer Wednesday remains in critical condition at a Pittsburgh hospital, state police said.

The crash killed the boy’s foster mother, Christina Scott, 49, of Ebensburg in Cambria County. Police said Scott was in Fayette County so that the boys could visit with their biological parents at Children and Youth Services.

The 1 ½-year-old boy, also in the backseat, is scheduled to be released today, Trooper Stefani Plume said.

The boys were fastened in car seats in the back seat of the car when Scott got out of her car on Route 119 in North Union Township in an apparent attempt to change a flat tire. Scott was at the rear of her car, a Pontiac Grand Prix that was disabled in the right lane, when the rig hit her and her car near the Gallatin Avenue exit.

Plume said witnesses have told police that it appears she was trying to change the tire and had a spare leaning on the side of her car. Scott was looking in the trunk when she was hit, Plume said witnesses have reported.

The driver of the truck, Thomas P. Burke, 54, of Hurricane, W.Va., was going under the posted speed limit of 55 mph on that area of the road, police have said. He was uninjured.

For more information, read Friday’s HeraldStandard.com.