Slashdot Mirror


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."

18 of 413 comments (clear)

  1. The Poor Guy! by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Funny

    He was last seen at the plant arguing with one of the engineers who had assured him the latest Segway was "uncrashable." He rode off muttering something about having the last laugh. Clearly he was a business and marketing genius but a bit of a lemming in day-to-day life.

    But in all seriousness, I'm very sorry for him and his family. If I didn't constantly encounter the damned things on sidewalks and in pedestrian spaces on the National Mall in DC I wouldn't be so quick to lampoon their maker's untimely demise.

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:The Poor Guy! by Pojut · · Score: 5, Informative

      Note that the inventor of the Segway is Dean Kamen. This article is about Jim Heselden, the guy that bought the Segway company.

    2. Re:The Poor Guy! by mspohr · · Score: 5, Informative
      There is some more information on the Telegraph web site: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businesslatestnews/8027896/Millionaire-Segway-owner-dies-in-freak-accident.html

      It appears that he was a miner who received a redundancy payment and used it to start a business making wire cages that were filled with earth to stabilize canal banks. The military found these useful for building blast walls in Iraq and bought a bunch of them. I'm sure he did well as a military contractor but that was not his business.

      Sad for the family.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
  2. Re:Before anyone says it: by Mongoose+Disciple · · Score: 5, Funny

    Please look up the definition of irony before posting anything with that particular word in it.

    (This especially includes all Sheryl Crow fans)

    Ironically, you probably meant Alanis Morissette.

  3. I guess the top secret by ravenscar · · Score: 5, Funny

    amphibious assault Seguay couldn't keep its head above water

  4. Shameless Marketing Stunt... by Jackie_Chan_Fan · · Score: 5, Funny

    This has to be the worst way to get free press for your product. But I'll give it to the man... He's dedicated.

  5. Re:Before anyone says it: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The word they shall all be looking for, is apropos.

  6. Re:Before anyone says it: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    But it's important to uphold the principals, and not set a bad president.

  7. Re:That sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  8. Re:Alas poor segway, I knew him not so well by xaxa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  9. First death? by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is this the first confirmed death while operating a Segway?

  10. Re:Question by snspdaarf · · Score: 5, Funny

    What is the British equivalent to "Hey, Ya'll, watch this!"

    "Tally-ho!"

    --
    Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
  11. Don't call it a Segway... by clickety6 · · Score: 5, Funny


    Call it a Segw
                  a
                   a
                    a
                     a
                      a
                       a
                        a
                         a
                          y
    This ground is a way to get round the stupid whitespace filters

    --
    ----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
  12. Re:Not the inventor by Lazareth · · Score: 5, Informative

    Did you check your facts before you opened up the floodgates of your arse? The guy may have been a defence contractor, but his company made FORTIFICATIONS. Not in the sense of point-defence systems, but in the sense of freaking walls.

  13. Inventor: yes/no. by Slartibartfast · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Personal Transporter's *actual* inventor is this engineer I've bumped into -- I work with his brother. DK was "merely" the person who put money and PR behind it. Dean gets a lot of credit -- but really, *his* biggest invention was the insulin pump.

  14. Re:Not the inventor by nibbles2004 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  15. Re:inb4 people making jokes of this by nerdup · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  16. Re:inb4 people making jokes of this by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News