LONDON — A businessman who bought the company that makes the Segway scooter died from a fall off of a cliff in northern England, apparently while riding one of the vehicles on his estate.
West Yorkshire police said in a statement that the body of Jimi Heselden, 62, had been pulled Monday from the River Wharfe near the town of Boston Spa after a call from a passer- by. Local media reports said he was thought to have lost control of his scooter Sunday on a wooded path that ran perilously close to a 30- foot drop into the river.
Heselden was a coal miner who lost his job in widespread mine closures of the mid-1980s. Using his expertise in coal-mining blast methods, he formed a company, Hesco Bastion, that manufactures protective barriers that have been widely adopted by military forces all over the world.
Heselden bought the Bedford, N.H.- based Segway company last December.
Heselden became well-known in Yorkshire as a businessman and philanthropist who donated to local charities and, more recently, to a fund to help rehabilitate injured soldiers.
Obituary
