Segway Owner Dies in Freak Segway Accident

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The owner of Segway, Jimi Heselden, has died after riding his X2 Segway scooter off of a cliff.

Jimi Heselden, the owner of scooter company Segway, has died following a freak accident. The incident, which took place on Sunday in West Yorkshire, England, saw Heselden drive his off-road Segway off a cliff and into a river. The AP cites police who say a witness had reported seeing a man fall the 30 feet (9 meters) from the cliff into the River Wharfe and a police spokeswoman said they were notified a little before noon on Sunday.

"Police were called at 1140 yesterday to reports of a man in the River Wharfe, apparently having fallen from the cliffs above," a police spokeswoman told the BBC, adding that a Segway was found nearby.

Heselden, a 62-year-old businessman from Leeds in the United Kingdom, acquired Segway Inc. last year. He last month donated £10 million to the Leeds Community Foundation, which pushed his overall charitable donations to £23 million.

Read more on the BBC.

Jane McEntegart

Jane McEntegart works in marketing communications at Intel and was previously Manager of Content Marketing at ASUS North America. Before that, she worked for more than seven years at Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware, holding such roles as Contributing Editor and Senior News Editor and writing about everything from smartphones to tablets and games consoles.

53 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Lewis57
    How fast do those things go, I hardly believe he didn't have time to react or step off it.

    +1 for Darwin award.
    Reply
  • qwerty45
    ironic huh
    Reply
  • Trialsking
    Lewis57How fast do those things go, I hardly believe he didn't have time to react or step off it. +1 for Darwin award.
    At his age he probably already has children so he is disqualified from the Darwin Awards
    Reply
  • coleipoo
    Wow, that is sad.

    Next thing you know Steve Jobs will die from an exploding iPad.
    Reply
  • sliem
    Do not drink and segway.
    RIP.
    Reply
  • senkasaw
    This is the very reason I do laps everyday at the pool...just in case I drive my segway off a cliff.
    Reply
  • samdsox
    wtf? how do you fall off a cliff on a segway?
    Reply
  • meat81
    He is an older guy, i dont think his reflexes were that quick. Probably wanted to either save his segway or the cliff came up very abruptly.
    Reply
  • dasper
    Well when you hype your product as something that will "revolutionize the way cities are built" and then your product only slightly appeals to a small audience I can see them accidentally riding the product off a cliff. I really hope that is not the case but I do find it hard to believe you could not jump off a Segway if its about to go over a cliff.
    Reply
  • elcentral
    his fine still going steady under water
    Reply