All police found at the bottom of a cliff was a man’s body in a frigid river and a Segway, the two-wheeled electric vehicle that was supposed to revolutionize personal transport.
It was Jimi Heselden, a one-time laid-off coal miner turned self-made millionaire who had bought the Segway company only 10 months earlier. He apparently fell to his death while riding one of the sleek black-and-silver scooters. Authorities said on Monday that his body was found in the River Wharfe at the base of a 9m cliff.
Details remained sketchy — police say only that the death was not suspicious, meaning foul play is not suspected — but the incident seems certain to raise fresh questions about the safety of the Segway, which is banned on British motorways and in some US cities because of safety concerns.
PHOTO: REUTERS
A witness reported seeing a man fall on Sunday over a 9m drop into the river near the village of Boston Spa, 225km north of London. The remote, heavily forested area, not far from Heselden’s country estate, is popular with hikers.
A family spokesman released a statement saying the “exact circumstances of the accident are still being clarified and will, of course, be the subject of an inquest.” The family “has been left devastated by the sudden and tragic loss of a much-loved father and husband,” the spokesman said.
Somber family members visited the accident site on Monday — placing wreaths — but they asked for privacy.
Heselden, a high school dropout who went on to make a fortune developing a blast wall system used to protect troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, never abandoned his gritty roots. He used his money to help people in the working-class area around Leeds where he grew up, earning folk hero status there.
The 62-year-old Heselden had bought control of the Bedford, New Hampshire-based Segway in December.
The company’s unique two-wheeler was introduced with much fanfare in 1999 by its US founder, Dean Kamen, as a means of transport that was more protective of the environment than other scooters and automobiles.
The company claims the Segway is 11 times more efficient than the average US car. It can be used indoors because it has no emissions, making it popular with some police departments and private security firms, which use it to patrol indoor malls.
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