By Elizabeth Harvey President of Bermuda Industrial Union Co-op taxis yesterday told taxi drivers to "forget about weapons''.

"Every weapon creates another weapon. Forget about them. They will just create more violence,'' Mr. George Scott said.

"What is to stop a guy who knows that taxi drivers carry weapons from just getting a gun?'' His comments came in the wake of an assault by a single woman passenger on a cab driver woman early yesterday morning.

The incident is the fourth reported attack on a taxi driver in three weeks.

The woman allegedly held a sharp instrument to the driver's neck and demanded $20 after getting out of the taxi at the junction of Ord Road and Cherry Lane in Warwick.

But she fled empty-handed leaving the driver uninjured, a Police spokesman said.

Mr. Scott, who represents 80 taxi drivers, urged Government to back preventative measures to help stop attacks.

These included giving taxi drivers the right to demand identification from passengers who they think might refuse to pay before accepting rides.

He added that the information should be relayed through the radio dispatcher to deter would-be attackers.

"They're going to think twice about climbing in a taxi,'' he said.

Passengers who refused to show ID would be refused rides.

Mr. Scott's comments came after some taxi drivers, alarmed by the recent upsurge in attacks, called for the right to carry weapons to defend themselves.

But Mr. Scott said refusing to service parts of the Island was not the answer.

"We can't be selective about where we work. We have to stop prejudice and discrimination. It sounds harsh but that's what time it is,'' he said.

Spokesman for the Bermuda Taxi Owners Union Mr. Lee Tucker said safety was at the top of the agenda at a BTOU executive meeting last night.

The meeting precedes a public meeting next Thursday.

The BTOU which represents about 100 members will be pressing for stiffer sentences to deter would-be attackers, Mr. Tucker said.

"It is part of the agenda that we will be approaching the Minister of Transport to see if he will apply any type of pressure on the courts to come up with more severe punishments for this type of offence,'' he said.

"The law should deal with robbing a taxi like robbing any other business.

Robbery is robbery. If a person is caught, the courts have to deal with him with the strongest possible measures.'' He believed that recent light sentences had contributed to the problem. "They are no deterrent,'' he said.

But he added he was not entirely in favour of forcing passengers to identify themselves.

"That might create more problems -- it might deprive innocent passengers of rides. The elderly, for example do not always carry ID with them.

"We have to look at all the possibilities there are to safeguard ourselves.''