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

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.

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: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: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.