Police Officials and a Local Boy Save a Canadian Man Stranded in His Vehicle on a Railroad Crossing in Old Orchard Beach, ME.

Two police officials and a local teenage boy are heroes after saving a man who stalled his car on railroad tracks in Old Orchard Beach, ME, today.

Brian Paul and Janet Paradiso chief and captain of police in Old Orchard Beach respectively, rammed a police cruiser into Francois Truffaut’s pink Cadillac Seville and pushed it from the tracks.

James Laboke, 17, noticed the stalled car and ran 100 yards to the police station on Pier Street to report the incident. According to Laboke, the man appeared to be unconscious, and the car doors were locked. Laboke pounded on the window, but the driver remained slumped over the wheel. 

Paradiso was about a mile away from the railroad crossing. She arrived at the scene just five minutes before the train was due. “I knew there was no time. I had to do something,” Paradiso said. The Amtrak commuter train hurdled down the tracks at 40 miles per hour seconds after the successful rescue.

A tourist from Québec City, Canada, 80-year-old Truffaut has been coming to Old Orchard Beach since he was a child. A diabetic, Truffaut may have gone into insulin shock as he reached the railroad crossing.  He was listed in stable condition at Southern Maine Medical Center.

Amtrak operates a passenger train that runs from Portland, ME, to Boston called the Downeaster. It makes a special stop in Old Orchard Beach during the summer months. It leaves southbound from Portland every morning and comes through town at about 6:10 a.m.

Old Orchard Beach is a summer tourist community on the southeastern coastline of Maine. It is best known for its long beach, its wooden pier stretching out over the bay, and its family-friendly amusement park.

Laboke, a waiter at the Eezy Breezy Restaurant on East Grand St., wakes up every morning at 5 a.m. to walk to work. An Afghan refugee, he has been living in Old Orchard Beach for three years. Laboke managed to report to work right on time and didn’t mention anything about the incident to his boss, Charles Champaigne.

Champaigne, the restaurant’s owner, said that Laboke was one of most responsible employees. “He’s just a great kid,” Champaigne said. He hired Laboke about eight months ago.

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