Refugee Alerts Police, Helps Saves Mans Life

A Sudanese refugee and Old Orchard Beach resident, James Laboke, is being praised after helping to save the life of, Francois Truffaut, after Laboke alerted the police to Truffaut's 1987 Cadillac Seville, which was stalled on the local train tracks.

Laboke, who was on his way to work, found the car at 6 a.m., approximately five minutes before the Downeaster train zoomed over the tracks.

After finding the car stalled on the tracks, Laboke, pounded on the windows of the locked car to get the attention of Truffant who was unconscious at the wheel. Laboke sprinted one hundred yards to the police station where he reported the car after his attempts of waking the driver failed.

A captain on the local police force, Janet Paradiso was the first on the scene and rammed the Seville off the tracks with her police cruiser, only thirty seconds before the train came through the section of tracks. Paradiso said she heard the whistle of the train in the distance and "there was no time. I had to do something."

Upon reaching the hospital, Truffant, said he was diabetic. He most likely went into insulin shock just as he reached the railroad crossing according to the police report.

Had Paradiso not rammed the Seville off the tracks, the train surely would've sped into the car.

The conductor, Shirley Temple, of the Downeaster train that almost rammed into the car of Truffant said that she, "had a lump in my throat," as she saw the Seville sitting helplessly on the tracks.

When questioned what she would've done to prevent the accident had Paradiso not rescued Truffant she said, "When this baby gets a head of steam it takes a mile to stop. I couldn't have pulled the brake because it could have injured passengers on the train."

Laboke, seventeen, works at the Eezy Breezy Restaurant and walks four miles to work every day. His boss, and owner of the Eezy Breezy, Charles Champaigne, described Laboke as, "one of my most responsible employees," and "a great kid."

Neither of those descriptions will be questioned after Laboke's heroism that he described casually saying, "I never thought about it. I just knew I couldn't let that man get crushed by a train. Laboke has lived in Old Orchard Beach for three years.

The Downeaster train, which is operated by Amtrak, goes to Boston from Portland everyday and leaves Portland at 5:55a.m. It makes a stop at Old Orchard Beach during the summer.