Old Orchard Beach, Maine- When James Laboke woke up at 5 a.m. this morning, he had no idea that his four mile commute to the Eezy Breezy Restaurant in Old Orchard Beach, Maine would involve saving the life of an 80-year-old tourist.
Laboke was walking to work when he saw a car stalled on the tracks where the Amtrak Downeaster runs from Portland to Boston.
A man was slumped over the steering wheel, the engine was running, the doors were locked and Laboke could not wake the man by pounding on the window.
“I never thought about it,” Laboke said. “I just knew I couldn’t let that man get crushed by a train.”
Laboke, a 17-year-old Afghan refugee, has lived in Maine for three years. He does not own a cell phone, so he ran 100 yards to the police station on Pier Street for help.
Janet Paradiso, a captain on the town police force, was parked a mile away from the railroad crossing when she received a call over the radio about the stranded vehicle. She arrived on the scene within minutes and heard the train’s whistle.
“I knew there was no time. I had to do something,” Paradiso said.
Acting quickly, Paradiso drove her police cruiser in the stalled pink Cadillac Seville pushing it off of the tracks. Thirty seconds later the train went through at around 40 miles per hour.
“I don’t remember a thing,” said Francois Truffaut, the owner of the vehicle who was visiting from Quebec City, Canada.
Truffaut was taken to Southern Maine Medical Center and is in a stable condition. Truffaut is a diabetic and may have gone into insulin shock at the crossing, the police later reported. No report has been released regarding the state of the 1987 pink Cadillac Seville.
As for Laboke, he reported to work at the Eezy Breezy Restaurant on time and ready to wait tables.
When a reporter called the restaurant later, Laboke’s boss, Charles Champaigne, said he was not surprised to learn of Laboke’s heroism.
Champaigne owns the Eezy Breezy Restaurant on East Grand Street and hired Laboke about eight months ago.
"That young man is one of my most responsible employees. He’s just a great kid.”
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