Owner of Segway Company Dies After Driving Scooter Off Cliff
The multi-millionaire owner of the Segway company died Sunday when he fell off a cliff while riding the famous motorized scooter, the Telegraph reports.
Jim Heselden, 62, died after skidding off a cliff at his estate in Yorkshire, England. He was reportedly testing a cross-country version of the upright, two-wheeled scooter when he plunged from the cliff.
Heselden's body was later found in a river by a passerby, the newspaper reports.
"Police were called at 11: 40 a.m. yesterday to reports of a man in the River Wharfe, apparently having fallen from the cliffs above," a spokesman for the West Yorkshire police told the newspaper.
"A Segway-style vehicle was recovered. He was pronounced dead at the scene," the spokesman reportedly said. "At this time we do not believe the death to be suspicious."
Heselden was worth close to $265 million and ranked 395th on the Sunday Times Rich List. He bought the Segway company less than a year ago from its U.S. inventor Dean Kamen. The battery-powered, gyroscope-stabilized Segway was invented by Kamen, who founded the company in 1999.
He made a fortune through his firm Hesco Bastion, which developed a system replacing sand bags to protect troops, the AP reported.