Local Teen Helps Save a Life

Local resident and police captain Janet Paradiso join forces to save an elderly man’s life.

This morning James Laboke, 17, a local resident, spotted a stopped car on the train tracks. Laboke, an Afghan Refugee wakes up at 5 a.m. to walk four miles to the Eezy Breezy Restaurant on East Grand Street, where he was hired as a waiter eight months ago.
Laboke spotted Francois Truffant’s 1987 pink Cadillac Seville stopped on the railroad tracks about ten minutes before the 5:55 a.m. train to Boston passed through Old Orchard. Laboke approached the running car to see Truffant, 80, slumped over and unconscious at the wheel.
After pounding on the car’s window and realizing the doors were locked Laboke had to think quickly. Laboke, who doesn’t have a cell phone, ran approximately 100 yards to the police station on Pier Street. Laboke later said, “I never thought about it. I just knew I couldn’t let that man get crushed by a train.”
Police Captain, Janet Paradiso responded to the call about a mile away from the tracks. She arrived at the scene at 6:05 a.m. just as the train’s warning whistles became audible. With the Amtrak train approaching at 40 miles per hour, Paradiso took action ramming her cruiser into the back of Truffant’s Seville to push it out of danger. Paradiso commented, “I knew there was no time. I had to do something.”
Approximately 30 seconds later the train sped through the crossing. Brian Paul, Chief of Police at Old Orchard beach said, “it was that close.”
Truffant, a diabetic, was said to have gone into insulin shock at the time he reached the railroad crossing. Listed in stable condition at Southern Maine Medical Center he said he did not remember anything of the incident.
Old Orchard Beach, a tourist community on the Southern Maine seacoast attracts tourists with its long beach and wooden pier. Truffant is a tourist from Quebec City and has been coming to Old Orchard Beach since he was a child.
Charles Champaigne, owner of the Eezy Breezy Restaurant didn’t think anything out of the ordinary when Laboke arrived to work on time this morning. Later, when a reporter called asking about the incident Champaigne learned of Laboke’s heroic deeds. Champaigne said, “It doesn’t surprise me at all. That young man is one of my most responsible employees. He’s just a great kid.”