Segway UK Boss Dies After Driving Off Cliff

necro81 writes "Jimi Heselden, the British multi-millionaire defense contractor and philanthropist, who bought the Segway company last December from inventor Dean Kamen, died yesterday after an accident while riding one of the machines. While using a ruggedized X2 version of the two-wheeled balancing scooter at his estate in North Yorkshire, he apparently drove over the edge of a precipice and into the River Wharfe. He was found later by a passerby and declared dead on the scene."

Comments

inb4 people making jokes of this

[Lazareth]

My condolences to his friends and relatives.

Re:inb4 people making jokes of this

[nerdup]

Or maybe people other people just don't spend a lot of time getting bent out of shape over the death of someone they didn't know and to whom they had no connection. Personally I find it just as distasteful to make insincere public expressions of sorrow over something that actually doesn't affect you at all because "it's what you're supposed to do" or because you want to show all the other random anonymous slashdotters what a sensitive and caring person you are.

Re:inb4 people making jokes of this

[TheRaven64]

Love how people can get a laugh out of everything.

So do I. I hope when I die, people don't decide to have a moratorium on enjoying life. If I die in an amusing way and people don't laugh, I'll come back and haunt them.

Re:inb4 people making jokes of this

[Councilor Hart]

Someone, somewhere dies every second. Are you going to express your sorrow for everyone or just for those who make the news?

That sucks

[bigredradio]

I'm sure there will be a lot of smart-ass comments making fun of this guy. The fact remains that a person lost his life in a tragic accident. Thoughts go out to his family.

Re:That sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

Thoughts go out to his family.

Really? A few dozen people you didn't know died just while you were typing that post. And if you take the time to give thought to those, then even more will have died and you could never keep up.

Alas poor segway, I knew him not so well

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

This will just be another clump of dirt on the corpse of Segway. It actually sucks in a way. It was invented to try to radically mix up society and how we travel, change the way we travel in cities. Use less gas, get people moving, less space for parking, all that cool stuff. Instead it became a toy for Segway Polo, jokes for Mall Cops, and t tours. Never getting the impact it was intended for..

Re:Alas poor segway, I knew him not so well

[xaxa]

Bicycles do at least as much as a Segway does for most people, and they're a lot cheaper. The Segway tried to fill a niche that didn't really exist -- it isn't the lack of a small, exposed personal transport machine that keeps people in their cars.

Re:Alas poor segway, I knew him not so well

[GiveBenADollar]

Segway didn't try to fill a niche, they tried to create one. Just like microwaves, or velcro. They just didn't have a game changing device, or more to the point, it didn't change the game.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Not the inventor

[nibbles2004]

why don't you fall off a cliff, this guy left school at 15, become a miner , apparently gave millions to charity, provided defensive fortification's for the armed forces, i suspect he did a lot more in his life, to help and protect people than you ever will in your un-important existence. Your lack of respect and humanity says more about you , your values, your upbringing than anything else.

Re:Before anyone says it:

[tompaulco]

Alanis Morissette was, ironically, an English major who does know what "ironic" means and has stated that the only actually ironic thing about that song was its title. Ironically, that is.
With spin like that she would have made a good communications major.

Re:Before anyone says it:

[Mongoose Disciple]

To his credit, there are no Alanis Morissette fans really.

I was dragged to one of her shows a year or two ago by my wife, and she and her band put on a shockingly good and rock-like show, not at all what I would have expected. It was almost like watching a metal band fronted by Alanis Morissette cover the works of Alanis Morissette.

I'm a little ashamed to say it reminded me a lot of a Metallica concert, back before Metallica started sucking. AM was even headbanging to the guitar solos.

If that all sounds too surreal to be real, I can only say I would have thought the same thing.