Millionaire Segway owner dies in freak accident
The millionaire owner of the Segway upright scooter company has died in a freak accident after riding one of the machines off a cliff into a river.


Jimi Heselden who died after riding a Segway off a cliff and into a river
Jimi Heselden donated millions to charity Photo: Jonathan Gawthorpe/rossparry.co.uk

Jimi Heselden, 62, plunged into the River Wharfe at a beauty spot close to his home on an estate in Boston Spa, near Wetherby, West Yorkshire.

It is thought he lost control of one of the all-terrain versions of the machine as he travelled along a rutted bridleway close to his estate near Boston Spa, West Yorks, on Sunday morning.

The narrow pathway is littered with tree roots and is rutted and uneven for most of its length, used mainly by walkers and ramblers.

After dropping from the bridleway, he is understood to have fallen 80ft over the overgrown cliff and his body was discovered in the river after a passer-by called the emergency services.

Police said his body was recovered from the river but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

His wife Julie and other members of his family were too upset to talk about the tragedy.

A member of staff at his home, known as Flint Mill, near Wetherby Racecourse, said: “We are absolutely gutted, no one wants to talk about it.”

The property, protected by electronically controlled eight feet high metal gates, includes a stable block and museum.

Mr Heselden, a former miner who made a fortune developing a blast wall to protect troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, bought the Segway company in December last year.

The firm was started by US inventor Dean Kamen in 1999 and the upright machines, which the user powered by leaning forwards, became popular around the world.

Worth an estimated £166 million, Mr Heselden was well known for his philanthropy in his native Leeds and just last week donated £10 million to a charity foundation he launched in 2008.

The Leeds Community Foundation was set up to help disadvantaged youngsters and vulnerable elderly people in the city and has received more than £23 million from Mr Heselden over the past two years.

Mr Heselden, began his working life as a miner at the Temple Newsam and Lofthouse pits in the Yorkshire coalfields, but lost his job in the wave of redundancies that followed the miner’s strike of 1984.

Using his redundancy money he set up his own business, HESCO Bastion, manufacturing portable wire cages that can be filled with earth and sand.

They were initially used to shore up canal banks, but the business really took off when it received orders from the military which used the cages as replacement sandbags to stop bullets, missiles and suicide bombers in combat zones.

In the late 1990s the Pentagon alone bought more than £53 million worth of the flat pack walls for use in Iraq and later in Afghanistan.

Twice married Mr Heselden, who had four grown-up children, recently said he was very proud to give something back to his own community.

He said: “There are a lot of families out there who are struggling and a lot of youngsters who gave grown up without role models and who can’t get jobs.

“Life turned out pretty well for me, but I still work in the same area where I grew up and everyday I see people who, for whatever reason are down on their luck.

Mr Heselden was also a keen supporter of military charities and in 2008, his wife Julie paid £1.5 million at an auction to fly with the Red Arrows.

Tom Riordan, the chief executive of Leeds City Council, said: "We are all devastated and saddened to hear of the tragic death of Jimi Heselden OBE.

"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, giving millions to local charities to help people in his home city.

"He will be hugely missed and at this awful time our thoughts are with his family and friends."