Taxi driver Erskine Robinson has been driving a taxi without a seatbelt for almost 50 years.

However it was not until he was involved in a head-on collision with another car - an accident which has had him in the hospital for six weeks and counting - that Mr. Robinson said he realised just how very necessary seatbelts are.

For not only was the driver of the other car wearing his seat belt and walked away, but Mr. Robinson's surgeon Dr. Joseph Froncioni told the taxi driver had he been wearing a seatbelt he would not have sustained the injuries he did.

It was around 2.15 a.m. on Saturday, January 25 that the Devonshire father of three was coming from Ord Road up Southcote Hill. The other driver was coming in the opposite direction from South Shore Road and, claimed Mr. Robinson, was on the wrong side of the road. “It was on the crown of the hill and he ploughed right into me,” he said.

The other driver's car was fairly new with both a seatbelt and an air bag. Mr. Robinson's cab, however, was older, and without either safety feature.

The result? A “dashboard injury” which, explained Dr. Froncioni, is a classic no-seatbelt injury caused by the body flying forward into the dashboard.

“The knee hits first,” he said, “but the rest of the body keeps going - it pushes the hip out of the socket.”

With his hip shattered in the accident, Mr. Robinson has had to have two operations to replace his hip with a third minor one to be carried out today.

“They had to completely re-build it,” he said. “It was so bad they didn't think they could do it here, but they did it ... He (Dr. Froncioni) has done a very good job on me.”

Total hip replacements are fairly routine, said Dr. Froncioni. However, with Mr. Robinson's socket shattered, his case was more complex. Fortunately, he added, a colleague from Boston visiting the Island was able to extend his stay one extra day to operate on Mr. Robinson.

“Taxi drivers are professional drivers,” said Dr. Froncioni.

“They have an enormous responsibility to keep themselves safe so they can take care of passengers in the event of an accident. It's not asking much to ask them to obey the law. Their responsibility is to do the best driving job they can.”

Admitting the injury was extremely painful when he was first taken from the mangled car, Mr. Robinson said since the operations he has been experiencing relatively little pain. He is unsure when he will finally be released from the hospital, but both he and his wife Melvina hope it will be no longer than about two weeks.

“I don't want to go through anything like this again,” he said. “If having a seatbelt would have prevented this, it has got to be a good law - look at the pain and suffering I've gone through.

“He (Dr. Froncioni) tells me if there was a seatbelt in the car I wouldn't have had this hip problem. But I can tell you this - before I start driving again, there's going to be one in there.

“I didn't realise the importance of a seatbelt until then.”