February 9 Class Story

This morning, a 17 year old Sudanese refugee and a local police captain combined to miraculously save an unconscious 80 year old as he lay helpless in the wake of an oncoming train in Old Orchard Beach.

Police Captain Janet Paradiso rammed her car into that of Francois Truffaut, who had passed out on the train tracks, 30 seconds before the train barreled by. “It was that close,” Police Chief Brian Paul said.

James Laboke, a Sudanese refugee living in Old Orchard Beach for three years, was on his four mile everyday walk to work at the Eezy Breezy resturant when he saw a car stopped on the tracks, the engine still running. He found a man that appeared to be unconscious with the doors locked so he pounded on the windows with no luck. He then ran 100 yards to the police station.

The Amtrak Downeaster, a passenger train that runs from Portland, Maine to Boston, leaves Portland at 5:55 a.m. and is scheduled to go through the town at 6:10 a.m. Paradiso arrived on the scene at 6:05 a.m., traveling a mile after hearing the initial police call.
“I don’t remember a thing,” Truffaut said from his hospital bed at Southern Maine Medical Center. Truffaut also said he was a diabetic, connecting with the police report that said he may have gone into insulin shock just as he reached the railroad crossing. Truffaut had been coming to the tourist community from Quebec City since he was a child.

Laboke reported to work on time and humbly didn’t say anything about the heroics. “It doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Charles Champaigne, Labokoe’s boss at the Eezy Breezy. “That young man is one of my most responsible employees. He’s just a great kid.”

Laboke later said, “I never thought about it. I just knew I couldn’t let that man get crushed by a train.”