Early Monday morning, a heroic teenager alerted police of an unconscious driver stranded on train tracks just in time for the station to alert an officer who rammed the car to safety.
Old Orchard Beach, ME was where the 80-year-old Francois Truffaut fell unconscious in his 1987 Cadillac on the Downeaster train tracks. 17-year-old James Laboke saw the stalled car on the train tracks shortly before 6am on his morning walk to work. Laboke noticed that the driver was unconscious and decided to intervene. After pounding on the windows and trying to force the locked doors, Laboke decided to run to the police station 100 yards away.
Police reported Laboke’s arrival at the station at 6am. They made a call on the radio which was heard by Officer Janet Paradiso, a captain on the force. Only a mile away, Paradiso took immediate action. She arrived on the scene at 6:05am and rammed the back of Truffaut’s car with her cruiser to roll it off the tracks merely seconds before the train came rushing by.
“I knew there was no time,” Paradiso said later, “I had to do something.”
Later, Truffaut was taken to the Southern Maine Medical Center without any recollection of what happened. As a diabetic, he might have gone into insulin shock which explains why he was unconscious.
Laboke made it to work on time at the Eezy Breezy Restaurant on East Grand Street without saying a word to anyone about the events.
Laboke’s boss Charles 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.”
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