Father fighting for his life after crash near Market Harborough

Nicolae Pintilie is a Romanian national working at Bruntingthorpe Airfield, between Kibworth and Lutterworth.

He is the only survivor in a silver Peugeot 407 that crashed while taking four people from Corby to work in Bruntingthorpe.

It crashed on the A427 between Dingley and Market Harborough on February 12, killing three people – Ciprian Merla and Gheorghe Sofitchi, both aged 22, and Tatiana Chiosa aged 40. All four worked at Bruntingthorpe, for a staffing agency called Assured.

“Today is going to be the biggest day of Nicolae’s life” his friend and line manager Dumitu Stefanescu told the Mail. “He has scans on his brain and his spine. We’re hoping for a miracle and that they come back good.”

Nicolae sends most of his earnings back home to his wife and four children in Romania.

Tatiana, who died in the crash, is a divorced mother of a 14-year-old boy who goes to school in Corby. He is now being looked after by his aunt and uncle. Dumitu said: “He has been bullied at school since the accident. Children and two adults have been round to the family home. The adults were drunk.”

The two young men who died – Ciprian and Gheorghe – were best friends from Romania. All three who died will have funerals in Romania.

“I hope they are going to be repatriated when the bodies are released this weekend” said Dumitu.

A fundraiser has been sent up on Facebook by friends for crash survivor Nicolae and the three people who died.

Dumitu said that it was as if accident survivor Nicolae had been in “another crash” to the other three.

“The other three had no marks and died” he said. “Nicolae is all broken - nobody believed he could be alive - and he survived.”

There is a small Romanian community of about 250 people who work at Bruntingthorpe.

“Everyone is very shocked” said Dumitu. “We are trying to pull together to help the families, but it’s very disturbing.”