Amtrak Downeaster Story

A local officer and teenager are being touted as a heroes after saving a Canadian tourist on Wednesday, Sept. 26, from the oncoming Amtrak Downeaster train at a railroad crossing in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

Authorities were directed to the scene by local resident James Laboke, age 17, who rushed into the nearby Pier Street police station after noticing that a car was stalled on the tracks while on the four mile walk to his job at the Eezy Breezy Restaurant on East Grand Street. Upon arrival at the station Laboke told officers that the car was stalled with a man – who was identified by authorities as 80-year-old Quebec City, Canada native Francois Truffaut – sitting in the driver’s seat unconscious.

After pounding on the window of the vehicle to try and wake the driver, Laboke then ran 100 yards to the police station to alert authorities.

Police captain Janet Paradiso received the call approximately a mile away from the scene in her police cruiser and made her way to the scene at 6:05 a.m. When she arrived on the scene she could hear the whistle of the oncoming train in the distance.

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

According to Brian Paul, Old Orchard Beach chief of police, Paradiso proceeded to ram her car into Truffaut’s 1987 Cadillac Seville and pushed it away from the tracks. Just moments later the train passed through the crossing at about 40 miles per hour.

“It was that close,” Paul said.

After the incident Truffaut was transported to Southern Maine Medical Center. He is currently listed in stable condition, but is unable to recall any of the incident.

“I don’t remember a thing,” Traffaut said.

Police reported that Traffaut, who admitted that he is a diabetic, may have gone into insulin shock just as he reached the railroad crossing.

As for James Laboke, he managed to arrive on time to his job as a waiter. When he arrived at work Laboke did not mention the incident that transpired earlier that morning.

In fact Laboke’s boss Charles Champaigne, the owner of the restaurant and the man who hired Laboke around eight months ago, was unaware of the incident until reporters contacted him.

When hearing about Laboke’s heroics, Champaigne was not surprised at all by his employees good deed.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” Champaigne told reporters at the restaurant. “That young man is one of my most responsible employees. He’s just a great kid.”

To Laboke though, he was simply doing the right thing.

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