One day after her 40th wedding anniversary, Joan Campbell stood with her husband in front of the astronomical clock on Old Town Square, taking in the sights at the pedestrian-clogged tourist hotspot.

Then, out of nowhere, a man riding a two-wheeled contraption bore down on her.

"Suddenly, I was absolutely whacked on my right leg, and this guy drove over my left foot," she recalls. "Before I knew it, I was lying in the middle of the square unable to stand up."

After the 63-year-old Briton found out she had a fractured foot, she found out what had caused it: a Segway, a two-wheeled human transport machine that has seen a mini-boom in Prague this year.

The machines are being used by tour companies, as well as by businesses such as nightclubs that advertise on them. The Prague Post saw seven such machines on the half-kilometer (0.3 mile) walk from Wenceslas Square to Old Town Square Sept. 29.

The Segway boom comes amid concerns about the vehicle's safety, while Czech Segway operators show no worries.

Less than 10 days after Campbell's accident, the U.S.-based Segway, Inc. voluntarily recalled nearly all of its 23,500 transporters because of a software glitch that can make them go in unexpected directions, throwing off the rider.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission advised Sept. 14 that people immediately stop using Segways. It is the second time the transporters have been recalled since they first went on sale in 2002.

But Czech Segway dealers and tour operators are shrugging off concern, and will not return any of the machines.

"It goes without saying that we know about this," said Dana Macháčková, sales assistant at Segway-CZ, the lone authorized Segway dealer in the Czech Republic. "But the problem only concerns PT models, which we don't sell."

In fact, the problem concerns all i Series, e Series, p Series, XT, GT and Segway i2 models sold through mid-September, according to the U.S.-based company. Only the Segway x2 model avoided the recall.

When told this, Macháčková maintained her position.

"Even if the report mentions other models, Segway is only behaving as any other producer would — recalling all models to avoid any possible legal action," she said. "As for us, we need not do anything of the kind. There are no problems with the transporters we sold."

Two Prague-based tour companies also said that the recall did not apply to models that they had in stock.

Segway-CZ says it has sold nearly 200 transporters.

Fueled by enthusiasm

Although Segways first started being imported to the Czech Republic in 2003, they remained largely unknown here. The first Segway tour company sprung up in 2004. But only this year did a flurry of entrepreneurs and adverstisers begin capitalizing on the novelty.

"When you are on a Segway, everyone turns their head toward you," said Pavel Prior, owner of the new company Segwaypoint, which also offers Segway tours in downtown Prague. "They are viewed as something exotic here."

Prior was so carried away by a Segway when he first saw one earlier this year that he decided to open his own Segway-dependent company this July.

"It was a business idea fueled by enthusiasm," said the 21-year-old entrepreneur, who is still an undergraduate at a private business school.

Prior bought five Segways and started offering two-hour guided tours around downtown Prague to groups of four. Tours run 1500 Kč ($67).

Before the recall, the company planned to double the number of Segways next year, Prior said.

The Segway has also caught the attention of some companies that want to exploit it for promotional purposes, including several nightclubs around Wenceslas Square.

"This is a modern device that is not well-known in Prague yet," said Simona Kárníková, marketing director at 24 hodin, a free daily newspaper distributed throughout the city. The paper bought three Segways in June and uses them to hand out newspapers and promotional energy drinks.

But 24 hodin has witnessed first-hand what can happen when a company relies on a novelty to market its product.

Kárníková said that Segways almost doubled the number of newspapers given out by the distributors who were riding them.

"When our Segway shows up at a new place, the first reaction to it is great interest," she said. "But, after several days, it dies down."

Unfulfilled promise

In its early days, Segway backers, including U.S. venture capitalist John Doerr, predicted that the Segway Co. would be the fastest company in history to reach $1 billion in sales.

But high costs — Segways run about 250,000 Kč per unit here — have prevented Doerr's prediction from coming true. For the most part, it remains not much more than a plaything for affluent people.

Joan Campbell hopes it stays that way. The Segway didn't just give her a few weeks in a cast; it soured her impression of Prague. She has no plans to return to the city.