Portland OR bus driver testifies about fatal crash

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A fired TriMet driver has testified that because of post-traumatic stress disorder she struggles to remember the night she hit five pedestrians with her bus. Two people died and three survived their injuries.

Sandi Day said Thursday she thought she saw pedestrians on a sidewalk across the street on the night of April 24, 2010. Then with a sob she said her next memory of the Portland crash was “seeing people in front of my windshield.” She recalled shadows and movement.

Circuit Court Judge Stephen Bushong has called a recess until Feb. 4. A defense expert hired to conduct a crash reconstruction won’t be available until then.

Day is accused of six traffic violations in the nonjury trial. She is hoping to keep her commercial driver’s license and get her job back.

A Multnomah County grand jury found no criminal wrongdoing.

Danielle Sale, 22, of Vancouver, and Jenee Hammel, 26, of Gresham, Ore., were pinned under the bus and died at the scene of the crash.

Jenee Hammel’s brother, Ryan Hammel, 28, and his wife, Jamie Hammel, 23, suffered minor injuries while Sale’s boyfriend, Robert Erik Gittings, 22, of Boise, Idaho, was also run over.