BUS MOWED THEM OVER

Family photoJamie and Ryan Hammel The father of a survivor of Saturday night's horrific TriMet wreck that left two dead said his daughter and her husband were sideswiped and that the women who died were struck head-on.

Jamie Hammel's father, Mark Caton, of Beaverton, said his daughter is in “pretty bad pain" after surviving the wreck. He said that on the night of the accident, his daughter had gone out with her husband, Ryan, Ryan’s sister and two friends.

He said his daughter told him she and her friends had left Harvey's Comedy Club after a sold-out 10 p.m. show with comedian Jeff Burghart. They were in the crosswalk at Northwest Glisan Street and Broadway, one block away, approaching Ryan Hammel's car when “the bus mowed them over.”

Caton said his daughter and her husband were struck by the side of the bus but that Jenee Hammel, 26, of Gresham, and Danielle Sale, 22, of Vancouver, “were hit dead on.” Both died. Hammel, Ryan Hammel's sister, is survived by a young son.

Robert E. Gittings, 22, of Idaho, remains in serious condition this morning at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

Caton said Jenee Hammel sang at his daughter’s wedding and had planned to sing at his son’s wedding this August. “She was a very nice, sweet young woman,” he said. “She had her whole life ahead of her.”

Jamie and Ryan Hammel married in January and live in Southeast Portland. He said his daughter, a Beaverton High School graduate, works at an Alzheimer's care center in Washington and her husband works at a company that installs residential elevators.

Jenee Hammel's family is holding a candlelight memorial at 9 p.m. tonight. The memorial for Hammel and Sale will be held at the intersection of Northwest Broadway and Glisan -- the site of the fatal wreck.

Stephen Radie, 34, of Aloha, was in his car with his wife and friends when they heard screams and saw people running out of the intersection of Northwest Broadway and Glisan. He said he was about two-thirds of a block from where a TriMet bus had struck a group of friends.

Radie parked his car, then dashed to the scene. He said police and paramedics had not yet arrived. One woman was trapped under the rear tire of the bus and a woman knelt next to her. He said the woman appeared to have already died.

Radie then walked to the front of the bus and saw two other people trapped. A woman was pressed against the front tire, and a man lay wounded next to her. The woman died, Radie said. And the man was clearly suffering and not alert.

“Help is coming,” Radie said to them. “Hold on.”

Radie said the crowd of about 30 or so people stood by helplessly waiting for emergency personnel.

“You couldn’t get to him,” he said. “You couldn’t do anything but talk to them. It was a really chaotic scene. People were running everywhere. I think even the cops were overwhelmed by what they saw when they got there.”

He said paramedics arrived, jacked up the bus and extracted the three victims.

Radie, a father of three, said he is trained in first aid but he couldn’t reach the victims. “You couldn’t get your hands in to help them physically. You could only say a prayer and let them know you are going to get them out of there.”