Commander of Battalion in Iraq Dies in Car Crash in Romania

The commander of the 280 Infantry Battalion in Focsani, eastern Romania, died Friday in a car accident, a few hours after his return to Romania from a six-month mission in Iraq.

Lt Col Stefan Balan, 39, and his wife Maricica, 39, died instantly, and their daughter Andreea, 14, was left in a deep coma after the car the man was driving left lane and crashed into another automobile coming from the opposite direction. The two people traveling in the second car were also severely hurt.
Police suspect Balan fell asleep while driving.

The rest of 30 military men in his battalion were traveling from the military airport they arrived at to Focsani city in a coach behind Balan’s automobile, so they witnessed the accident.

Balan was at his first mission abroad. He took his current position in May 2005. Balan graduated in 2004 as valedictorian from the Faculty for Chiefs of Staffs at the University for National Defense, and trained too at the Polish Academy for National Defense, and the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany.