Sandi Day is under direct questioning from defense attorney Michael Greenlick. She said she worked for six years as part-time bus driver before going to work for TriMet in November 2007.
The majority of her life, Day said she has worked in the “hospitality industry.”
During her training, she said she received no specific training that indicated left turns were any trickier than right turns. She also said bus drivers were “strongly encouraged to do courtesy stops.”
There was no specific training about which speed to take turns, she testified. A typical turn, she said, turn is 7 to 15 mph, depending on how much maneuvering is required.
11:40 a.m.
Day says she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which has affected her memory. She has started to break down and cry three times while trying to remember her shift before she struck the pedestrians.
Day says she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which has affected her memory. She has started to break down and cry three times while trying to remember her shift before she struck the pedestrians.
12:10 p.m.
Greenlick: “Do you remember what you did?”
Day: “I began braking.” She begins to sob heavily. She says something that is hard to understand. Prosecutor Chuck Sparks asks her to repeat her statement. “I thought,” she said, “of hard braking over bodies.”
Day: “I stopped the bus. I remember someone on left side window, someone yelling and screaming for me to move the bus. I tried to think if I should move the bus.”
At that point, she said, the man screaming at her through her open window then punched her in the head, shoulder, neck and ribs. (Ryan Hammel has testified that he punched Day in the shoulder to get her attention after seeing his sister trapped under the rear wheels.)
Day: “I remember moving the bus. I don’t remember how far. I had a hard time remembering if I had made my emergency call. I remember talking to the dispatcher, asking for a supervisor. I remember thinking while the bus is running I might be burning them.”
11:59 a.m.
Day said she had worked the Line 14 until 2 a.m. on April 24. She returned to work at 3 p.m. and started the Line 9 at 5:55 p.m.
Just before midnight, she was making her last swing through downtown.
She recalls Peter Leiss, the security guard that she had picked up, requesting a courtesy stop. (Leiss has testified that he didn’t ask for her to stop off her normal route).
Greenlick asked why she chose the Line 17 stop on far north corner of Northwest Glisan Street, about 20 feet away from Broadway. “The only thing I remember is something that it was closer to his home. I really don’t know.”
She has begun to sob.
“Stops are the safest place to stop,” she said. Asked why unscheduled courtesy stops are important, she said: “Service to the community. It’s part of my job.”
She said she can’t remember turning from Northwest Sixth and Flanders onto Glisan before the courtesy stop.
By habit, she knew to “angle out” a bus at stops. She believes she left a little bit of the bus in the adjacent lane on Glisan, based on her view of bus surveillance video.
“I believe I saw people on the far corner during my scan” On a diagram at the front of the courtroom, she points to the southwest corner of Broadway, across the intersection.
Greenlick: “What do you remember after that?”
Day: “I remember seeing people in front of my windshield. … Right in front of me. A shadow here. A shadow with hair in front of me. And movement.”
The parents of Sale and Hammel are in the front row, sobbing.
Tears are streaming down Day’s cheeks. Her lip is quivering heavily. It’s hard to make out some of her statements.
Greenlick: “Do you remember what you did?”
Day: “I began braking.” She begins to sob heavily. She says something that is hard to understand. Prosecutor Chuck Sparks asks her to repeat her statement. “I thought,” she said, “of hard braking over bodies.”
Day: “I stopped the bus. I remember someone on left side window, someone yelling and screaming for me to move the bus. I tried to think if I should move the bus.”
At that point, she said, the man screaming at her through her open window then punched her in the head, shoulder, neck and ribs. (Ryan Hammel has testified that he punched Day in the shoulder to get her attention after seeing his sister trapped under the rear wheels.)
Day: “I remember moving the bus. I don’t remember how far. I had a hard time remembering if I had made my emergency call. I remember talking to the dispatcher, asking for a supervisor. I remember thinking while the bus is running I might be burning them.”
11:59 a.m.
Day said she had worked the Line 14 until 2 a.m. on April 24. She returned to work at 3 p.m. and started the Line 9 at 5:55 p.m.
Just before midnight, she was making her last swing through downtown.
She recalls Peter Leiss, the security guard that she had picked up, requesting a courtesy stop. (Leiss has testified that he didn’t ask for her to stop off her normal route).
Greenlick asked why she chose the Line 17 stop on far north corner of Northwest Glisan Street, about 20 feet away from Broadway. “The only thing I remember is something that it was closer to his home. I really don’t know.”
She has begun to sob.
“Stops are the safest place to stop,” she said. Asked why unscheduled courtesy stops are important, she said: “Service to the community. It’s part of my job.”
She said she can’t remember turning from Northwest Sixth and Flanders onto Glisan before the courtesy stop.
By habit, she knew to “angle out” a bus at stops. She believes she left a little bit of the bus in the adjacent lane on Glisan, based on her view of bus surveillance video.
“I believe I saw people on the far corner during my scan” On a diagram at the front of the courtroom, she points to the southwest corner of Broadway, across the intersection.
Greenlick: “What do you remember after that?”
Day: “I remember seeing people in front of my windshield. … Right in front of me. A shadow here. A shadow with hair in front of me. And movement.”
The parents of Sale and Hammel are in the front row, sobbing.
Tears are streaming down Day’s cheeks. Her lip is quivering heavily. It’s hard to make out some of her statements.
12:15 p.m.
Day continues: “There was a lot of screaming.”
Day continues: “There was a lot of screaming.”
Asked if she recalled someone coming on the bus, she testified, “I do now remember someone coming on the bus.”
She says it was Stephanie Rilatos, whose earlier testimony was challenged because it was discovered Wednesday that her sister and boyfriend work at TriMet and she has applied for a job at TriMet.
Greenlick: “Do you remember what she said to you.”
Day: “I believe she told me to stay calm and I assume she told me they had been running in front of my bus.”
Greenlick: Why do you assume that?
She says it was Stephanie Rilatos, whose earlier testimony was challenged because it was discovered Wednesday that her sister and boyfriend work at TriMet and she has applied for a job at TriMet.
Greenlick: “Do you remember what she said to you.”
Day: “I believe she told me to stay calm and I assume she told me they had been running in front of my bus.”
Greenlick: Why do you assume that?
Day: “Because I stated it to police.”
“I don’t remember anyone running in front of the bus.”
“I wasn’t even speculating” about how it happened.
Greenlick: Do you understand now how it happened?
“I don’t remember anyone running in front of the bus.”
“I wasn’t even speculating” about how it happened.
Greenlick: Do you understand now how it happened?
Day: “No sir.”
12:25 p.m.
Greenlick asks Day to recall what happened after she was taken back to the TriMet Powell Street Garage after the crash.
Day says she was put in a room with four TriMet managers. She said they told her to give a verbal statement and to fill out written paperwork about what happened. She said she had trouble.
Sobbing, Day recalls, “I told them I couldn’t … and one of them demanded that I do it now.”
“I realized I couldn’t say what really happened. I asked for my union rep.”
“All I know is that I saw them at impact, and I realize that’s all I should put on my paperwork.”
For days after the tragedy, she says she couldn’t sleep.
Greenlick asks Day to recall what happened after she was taken back to the TriMet Powell Street Garage after the crash.
Day says she was put in a room with four TriMet managers. She said they told her to give a verbal statement and to fill out written paperwork about what happened. She said she had trouble.
Sobbing, Day recalls, “I told them I couldn’t … and one of them demanded that I do it now.”
“I realized I couldn’t say what really happened. I asked for my union rep.”
“All I know is that I saw them at impact, and I realize that’s all I should put on my paperwork.”
For days after the tragedy, she says she couldn’t sleep.
12:30 p.m.
Defense attorney Michael Greenlick asks if the sweeping left turn across a lane on Glisan and left onto Broadway was “consistent” with what she learned in her weeks of TriMet training.
Day says yes. In fact, she says, she did a very similar thing regularly while driving the Line 96, with a stop at Southwest Commerce Circle and 95th Avenue (TriMet moved that stop after the April tragedy).
She says she took that turn, moving across a full lane before turning, during he probationary period, when trainers and supervisors would ride with her. No one told her it was wrong, she said.
Greenlick: Did that experience factor into why you thought you could do that safely?
Day: Yes. And, she says, the fact that she is trained to use space as needed to keep a 4-foot cushion around bus as it turns.
Greenlick: So the turn from westbound Glisan onto Northwest Broadway was consistent with your training.
Day: “Yes, sir.”
Defense attorney Michael Greenlick asks if the sweeping left turn across a lane on Glisan and left onto Broadway was “consistent” with what she learned in her weeks of TriMet training.
Day says yes. In fact, she says, she did a very similar thing regularly while driving the Line 96, with a stop at Southwest Commerce Circle and 95th Avenue (TriMet moved that stop after the April tragedy).
She says she took that turn, moving across a full lane before turning, during he probationary period, when trainers and supervisors would ride with her. No one told her it was wrong, she said.
Greenlick: Did that experience factor into why you thought you could do that safely?
Day: Yes. And, she says, the fact that she is trained to use space as needed to keep a 4-foot cushion around bus as it turns.
Greenlick: So the turn from westbound Glisan onto Northwest Broadway was consistent with your training.
Day: “Yes, sir.”
12:32 p.m.
The questioning has barely started before she breaks down crying. Day: “I didn’t know that a lot of the things we were asked to do weren’t legal.”
The questioning has barely started before she breaks down crying. Day: “I didn’t know that a lot of the things we were asked to do weren’t legal.”
12:40 p.m.
Sparks to Day: It’s apparent, you don’t know what happened. Day says that’s right.
Day says she habitually scanned every 5 to 8 seconds while driving buses. She tried not to get “into a fixed stare.” While turning, she says she scanned for “movement, risks, cars, bicycles, more things.”
Sparks: “You were trained to look around obstacles. It was your responsibility to scan around them before you proceed forward.”
“Yes sir.”
On the courtesy stop, Sparks asks if it’s her understanding that she needs to make sure a stop is safe and legal -- in and out -- before a driver makes it?
Day: “Yes, sir.”
Day said she knew the Glisan stop because she had driven the Line 17 before. She said she had to pull close to the right lane curb because Leiss appeared elderly.
Sparks: “Realistically, don’t you think 12 to 14 mph was a little fast to be turning into that crosswalk?”
Day: “I don’t know how fast I was going. I assume it was a safe and reasonable speed.”
Sparks asks Day if she thinks it’s her responsibility to know what is in a crosswalk? Wouldn’t driving that fast toward a crosswalk with pedestrians be unsafe at the speed?
Day: "Yes."
Sparks: “It’s true then that you didn’t know what was in that crosswalk?”
Day: “I thought I did.”
12:45 p.m. Sparks to Day: It’s apparent, you don’t know what happened. Day says that’s right.
Day says she habitually scanned every 5 to 8 seconds while driving buses. She tried not to get “into a fixed stare.” While turning, she says she scanned for “movement, risks, cars, bicycles, more things.”
Sparks: “You were trained to look around obstacles. It was your responsibility to scan around them before you proceed forward.”
“Yes sir.”
On the courtesy stop, Sparks asks if it’s her understanding that she needs to make sure a stop is safe and legal -- in and out -- before a driver makes it?
Day: “Yes, sir.”
Day said she knew the Glisan stop because she had driven the Line 17 before. She said she had to pull close to the right lane curb because Leiss appeared elderly.
Sparks: “Realistically, don’t you think 12 to 14 mph was a little fast to be turning into that crosswalk?”
Day: “I don’t know how fast I was going. I assume it was a safe and reasonable speed.”
Sparks asks Day if she thinks it’s her responsibility to know what is in a crosswalk? Wouldn’t driving that fast toward a crosswalk with pedestrians be unsafe at the speed?
Day: "Yes."
Sparks: “It’s true then that you didn’t know what was in that crosswalk?”
Day: “I thought I did.”
Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Chuck Sparks has finished the cross-examination of Sandi Day. No further questions.
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