Young boy saves the day

A pink 1987 Cadillac Seville sits perpendicular on the train tracks. Its 6 a.m. and the train’s whistle toots softly in the distance; it is ten minutes away from reaching its destination in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. A young boy walks by, sees a man slumped over in the driver’s seat and furiously tries to open the locked doors. No luck.

                The incredible speed and quick decision making of a 17-year-old boy, James Laboke, saved a man’s life this morning around 6:10 a.m. The young hero saw a seemingly lifeless body trapped in a car stalled on the train tracks and sprinted 100 yards to a nearby police station to get help.

                Police alerted Janet Paradiso, captain of the town police force, who was on duty about a mile away from the railroad crossing. She arrived at the scene at 6:05 a.m. According to Chief Brian Paul, chief of police in Old Orchard Beach, Paradiso rammed her police cruiser into the Cadillac and pushed it from the tracks.

“I knew there was no time,” Paradiso said later at the police station. “I had to do something.”

The driver of the vehicle, 80-year-old Francois Truffaut, flirted with death as the train bombed through where his car sat just thirty seconds prior at 40 miles per hour. “It was that close,” said Chief Paul.

Laboke did not miss a beat as he arrived at his work, the Eezy Breezy Restaurant, promptly on time despite the shaky morning. Keeping the incident to himself, he did not even mention anything to his boss, also the owner, Charles Champaigne.

To Champaigne, it was no surprise to hear about Laboke’s chivalrous deed.  “It doesn’t surprise me at all,” Champaigne commented. “That young man is one of my most responsible employees. He’s just a great kid.”

                Every morning Laboke wakes up at 5 a.m. to walk four miles to work as a waiter. Today was simply just another routine morning on his way to work, no exceptions.

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

                Police believe that Truffaut, a diabetic, may have gone into insulin shock just as he reached the railroad crossing.

                “I don’t remember a thing,” Truffaut said. He is currently in stable condition.