Protester Who Lost Legs Not Angry With Train Crew

Ten days after he lost both legs and suffered a fractured skull when he was hit by a Navy munitions train, anti-war activist S. Brian Willson said Friday that he “feels no ill will toward the people who were on that train.”

Willson, 46, making his first public appearance since he was severely injured Sept. 1 while attempting to halt arms shipments to the Nicaraguan contras , said from a wheelchair at John Muir Hospital here that “I have compassion for the train crew.”

He added that he “can’t believe they would have wanted to run over me or anybody else.”

“And I would plead to them to search their heart and soul to see whether they want to continue participating in the moving of munitions that they know will kill innocent people,” he said.

‘Complete Blackout’

Willson said he does not remember the incident “because I have a complete blackout . . . from a certain point, a certain time before the impact until a day afterward.” Before he was injured, Willson said, the possibility of being struck by a munitions train “was never considered as a conceivable or imaginable option by anybody, including myself.”

The incident occurred as Willson and other demonstrators sat on railroad tracks outside the Concord Naval Weapons Center. As seen on a videotape, Willson seemingly tried to move out of the way as the train headed toward the protesters but was too late.

At Friday’s press conference, the bearded San Rafael resident, wearing a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap and a red T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan, “Help Build, Not Destroy Nicaragua,” spoke unemotionally for about 15 minutes, answering written questions submitted earlier by reporters.

‘Very Spirited’

“I feel very spirited, I feel very healthy, I’m getting my strength back,” Willson told reporters. “I have been walking for two days on the parallel bars. As soon as these casts are off, my knees will be operable, and I’ll be able to walk in a more normal fashion, and that’ll be another few weeks.”

Willson, appearing with his wife Holly Rauen and San Francisco attorney Tom Steel, vowed to return to the weapons station near here to continue his protest.

“I’m looking forward to walking out to the tracks some time in the next two months,” he said.

Meanwhile, nine people were arrested at the weapons station Friday morning as they attempted to block a truck caravan transporting munitions across a public road. Platoons of U.S. Marine and Navy guards, Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputies and California Highway Patrol officers also blocked the road to traffic for about 15 minutes while a three-car train tested railroad tracks replaced after demonstrators ripped out a 120-foot section last weekend.

Cover-up Charged

At the press conference, attorney Steel charged the Navy with “a cover-up” in its investigation of the incident in which Willson was injured. The Navy has maintained that the train was moving at only about 5 m.p.h. when it hit Willson, despite a videotape that shows the train moving much faster, Steel said, adding that he hopes criminal charges will be brought against some of the train’s crew members.

Steel also charged that the train was “deliberately ordered” to accelerate at full throttle toward a group of protesters, including Willson, sitting on the tracks.