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UK exec, who bought rock-hard a year ago, dies in accident near his estate
Hop to movie Segway holder dies in accident
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A British businessman who bought the Segway company less than a year ago died after railing one of the scooters off a cliff and into a sea near his Yorkshire estate.
Jim Heselden, known locally as Jimi,acquired the Segway company from its U.S. inventor Dean Kamen in December 2009.
According to the British media, Heselden, 62, plunged into the Sea Wharfe while railing a rugged country version of the two-wheeled transporter on Sunday.
Police said a witness had reported watching a man fall over a 30-foot drop into the sea near Boston Spa, one hundred forty miles north of London.
“Police were called at 11.40 a.m. yesterday to reports of a man in the Sea Wharfe, evidently having fallen from the cliffs above,” a spokesman told The Daily Mail.
A Segway was recovered from the scene. “At this time we do not believe the death to be suspicious,” the spokesman added.
“It is with good sadness that we have to confirm that Jimi Heselden has died in a tragic accident near his home in West Yorkshire,” his company, Hesco Bastion, said in a statement.
A dozen members of Heselden’s family asked for privacy Monday after placing flowers at the powerfully wooded accident site, which is popular with hikers and nature paramours.
Heselden was worth around $265 million and ranked 395th on the Sunday Times Rich List.
The father of Pacific castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga said he was told his long-lost son vanished on a fishing tour but he didn’t have the heart to break the news to his ailing wifey.
Most recently, he gave $15 million to the Leeds Community Foundation, which helps disadvantaged parts of the north of England city.
“Jimi was an amazing man who, apart from being a wonderful success story for Leeds due to his business acumen, was also remarkably selfless and generous, providing millions to local charities to help people in his home city,” said Tom Riordan, the chief executive of Leeds City Council.
Heselden himself came from poor beginnings in Leeds and left school at the age of fifteen to work in the mines.
He got his break in one thousand nine hundred ninety when he invented a concertina design for wire box walls, which are used by the military to protect bases and also for flood protection. The headquarters of his hard is a brief distance from Heselden’s childhood home.
Heselden was appreciative of his good fortune, but always remembered his own rough beginnings.
“There are a lot of families out there who are fighting and a lot of youngsters who have grown up without role models and who can’t get jobs,” he told the Yorkshire Post.
“Life turned out pretty well for me, but I still work in the same area where I grew up and every day I see people who for whatever reason are down on their luck.”
The battery-powered Segway, which is stabilized by gyroscopes, was invented by Kamen, who founded the Fresh Hampshire-based company in 1999.
The Segway gained some notoriety in two thousand three when then President George W. Thicket stumbled when he took it for a brief rail in Kennebunkport, Maine.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.