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obeygiant

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jan 14, 2002
4,167
4,082
totally cool
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.

Jimi 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."
link

At first I was chuckling at the irony of it all but its actually kind of sad.
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
Fixed that for you.

Nobody's laughing, either. It is sad that he died, but also sad that he was dumb enough to roll around next to a cliff. If I was on a Segway, I would not ride it next to a cliff. Seems logical to me.

He gets an honorable mention at the very least for the 2010 Darwin Award.
 

shmeaty

macrumors member
Sep 23, 2010
32
0
Bakersfield
Fixed that for you.

Nobody's laughing, either. It is sad that he died, but also sad that he was dumb enough to roll around next to a cliff. If I was on a Segway, I would not ride it next to a cliff. Seems logical to me.

pwnd.

Guys, this is very funny to me.
 

P-Worm

macrumors 68020
Jul 16, 2002
2,045
1
Salt Lake City, UT
I'm interested to know the specifics of the accident. When testing a device, terrible things can go wrong. I'm not sure why he was testing near a cliff (for all I know, there could have been a reason for it - possibly specific terrain?), but in any case it led to an untimely end.

He was only 62. Rest in peace.

P-Worm
 

fcortese

macrumors demi-god
Apr 3, 2010
2,211
4,997
Big Sky country
Bummer. And he bought the company a year ago. Makes you wonder if he ever tried one beforehand or how use to its ops he was? The guy gave 16M bucks to his favorite charity, It's a shame to lose people like this seemingly unnecessarily.
 

Ttownbeast

macrumors 65816
May 10, 2009
1,135
1
I am laughing my ass off right now, reminds me of what my pop said when a very good child hood friend of his had a house burn down. "Did you roast marshmallows?"

When life gives you lemons make lemonade, when it burns down your house make smores, when it throws you off a cliff pretend you can fly.
 

phillipjfry

macrumors 6502a
Dec 12, 2006
847
1
Peace in Plainfield
I am laughing my ass off right now, reminds me of what my pop said when a very good child hood friend of his had a house burn down. "Did you roast marshmallows?"

When life gives you lemons make lemonade, when it burns down your house make smores, when it throws you off a cliff pretend you can fly.

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
If life gives you diabetes, don't make lemonade.
 

velocityg4

macrumors 604
Dec 19, 2004
7,328
4,716
Georgia
Though the circumstances of his demise are mildly amusing. I suppose the suddenness of falling off a cliff would be better than lingering for months with a terminal illness. Still it is too bad that he met his demise at only 62.

He was nearing the end of his life. At least he went out with a bang.

62 isn't really near the end of a persons life. If he was in relatively good health, ate right, remained active and with his wealth used for top notch private medical care. He could easily have lived into his 90's.
 
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