Two local residents, a teenager and a police captain, are
being hailed as heroes today for saving the life of an 80-year-old man stalled
on the train tracks.
James Laboke, 17, was on his way to work when he spotted a
running car sitting on the train tracks, the driver slumped over the steering
wheel. Laboke ran 100 yards to the police station to warm someone of the
impending accident.
“I never thought about it, I just knew I couldn’t let that
man get crused by a train,” Laboke later said.
A mile down the road, Captain Paradiso was sitting in her
cruiser when she got the call on the radio about an abandoned vehicle. She
arrived on the scene as the train was rapidly approaching the stalled car. “I
knew there was no time. I had to do something,” said Paradiso. According to
chief Paul, she accelerated and rammed the car out of the way with her cruiser,
as the 40 mph train barreled by 30 seconds later.
The man in the stalled car, Francois Truffaut, a tourist
from Quebec City, Canada, is a diabetic. “I don’t remember a thing,” said
Truffaut. The police report suggested that Truffaut may have gone into insulin
shock while on the tracks, which may have led to his unconscious state.
After the incident Laboke immediately went to his work, and
not even late, spoke nothing of what he had just done to anyone. His boss,
Champaigne, only heard of the news when a reporter called. “It doesn’t surprise
me at all,” said Champaigne. “That young man is one of my most responsible employees.
He’s just a great kid.”
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