Portland siblings cling to life after crash

PORTLAND — Two siblings who were badly injured in a car accident that killed their parents and three sisters remained in California hospitals over the weekend, while the only surviving adult in the Portland family was described as too grief-stricken to speak.

Emanuela and David Stanescu were in critical condition nearly two days after their family's vehicle hit a center divider and rolled over on Interstate 5 north of Sacramento, ejecting everyone inside.

Their brother, Jonathan, 5, was in good condition in the pediatrics department at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, Calif., where 11-year-old Emanuela is hospitalized in a coma. David Stanescu, 2, was in critical condition at UC-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, The Oregonian newspaper reported.

Killed in the crash were George Stanescu, 40; and his wife, Daniela, 33; and their daughters, Miriam, 10; Tabitha, 8; and Jessica, 6.

The couple's seventh child, a 4-month-old boy named Daniel, was at home with his grandmother in Portland when the crash occurred.

Nicky Pop, pastor of the Philadelphia Romanian Pentecostal Church in Southeast Portland, which the family attended, said he spoke to Jonathan on Saturday. Pop said the boy was expected to be discharged from the hospital as soon as church members can get legal permission to pick him up. The boy has not been told about his family's fate.

"When I talked to him on the phone this morning, he thought I was his father," Pop said. "He said, 'Daddy, please come and get me.' He's scared. He doesn't know anyone at the hospital."

Church members filled the Stanescus' three-story Southeast Portland home Saturday. The couple operated an adult foster-care facility on the first floor and lived upstairs with their children.

A state-certified caregiver has been brought in to stay with the Stanescus' elderly clients so they can remain in the house, Pop said. The church, meanwhile, has hired a Romanian nurse to help care for the Stanescus' baby and George's mother, Floare Stanescu, who also lives in the house.

A church friend contacted at the family home Saturday said Floare Stanescu was too heartbroken to speak.

Floare is the only surviving adult of the Stanescu family in America, Pop said, adding that the church will help her raise the children and make whatever difficult decisions may lie ahead.

Police said George Stanescu lost control of his Chevy Suburban after apparently falling asleep at the wheel, causing the vehicle to roll several times. None of the eight family members in the vehicle was wearing a seat belt, police said.

George Stanescu had a long history of traffic convictions in Oregon in the past nine years.

According to court records, he was convicted multiple times for speeding, as well as failing to use seat belts, attempting to elude police, driving with a suspended license and driving without insurance.

George Stanescu moved from then-Communist Romania to California 15 years ago after spending time in a prison camp in Austria for illegally crossing the border, friends and neighbors said. He and his future wife, who also was from Romania, met in Sacramento, and the couple joined friends in Portland eight years ago.