DEATH of a Millionaire By Scooter - Jimi Heselden, UK

The multi-millionaire owner of the company that makes Segway motorised scooters died in a freak accident while riding one of his vehicles.  The body of the businessman, a former miner who was estimated to be worth over $250 million, was found in the River Wharfe ...

James Heselden and the notorious scooter.

James William "Jimi" Heselden OBE (27 March 1948 – 26 September 2010) was a British entrepreneur. A former coal miner, Heselden made his fortune manufacturing the Hesco bastion barrier system.  He bought Segway Inc., maker of the Segway personal transport system. Heselden died in 2010 from injuries apparently sustained falling from a cliff whilst riding a Segway. His estate, bequeathed to his widow and family, was worth over £340 million ($520 million), and he was ranked in the top 400 members of the Sunday Times Rich List.





Soldiers assembling HESCO bastions

Heselden grew up in the Halton Moor district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. At the age of 15, Heselden left Osmondthorpe Secondary Modern School to work as a labourer and then at collieries in Temple Newsam and Lofthouse. He lost his job in the wave of redundancies that followed the 1984–85 miners' strike and spent his redundancy money on renting a workshop and, at first, setting up a sandblasting business. He then worked on developing and patenting a collapsible wire mesh and fabric container, now called Hesco bastion, to be used for building flood management and to limit erosion.

In 1989, Heselden founded Hesco Bastion Ltd to manufacture containers of the same name; filled with sand or earth, they quickly found favour with the armies of several countries, as they allowed effective blast walls, barriers and revetments to be quickly constructed. Made in Hesco's factory in Leeds, these were shipped (flat-packed) in great numbers to conflict zones, including Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as later being used for flood defences at New Orleans. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honours, "for services to the Defence industry and to Charity."

In 2008, Heselden donated £1.5 million (over $2 million), to the Help For Heroes fund through a charity auction bid for nine people to fly with the Red Arrows and, in the same year, set up the Hesco Bastion Fund in his home city with a £10 million (over $15 million), donation to the Leeds Community Foundation. A further £3 million (over $4 million), was added to the foundation in 2009 and an additional £10 million in 2010.





Death

Tragedy: The spot where the accident happened
Photo source

At 11:40 a.m. on 26 September 2010, West Yorkshire Police received reports of a man falling 80 feet (24 m) into the River Wharfe, at the village of Thorp Arch near Boston Spa, apparently having fallen from the cliffs above.

A Segway vehicle was recovered and Heselden was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. Investigators said, "At this time we do not believe the death to be suspicious" and were investigating as to "whether there was a fault with his particular machine or it was driver error".

On 4 October 2010, at an inquest at Leeds Coroner's Court, coroner David Hinchliff reported that a post-mortem examination had concluded that Heselden had suffered "multiple blunt force injuries of the chest and spine consistent with a fall whilst riding a gyrobike".
Recording a verdict of accidental death, West Yorkshire Coroner David Hinchliff told Mr Heselden's family: "I think it's probable - I think typical of Jimi and the type of man he was - he held back and waited as an act of courtesy to allow Mr Christie (a dog walker) more room. In so doing, he's attempted to reverse the Segway back. As a result of that he's got into difficulty."

Heselden bought the Segway company less than a year earlier from its U.S. inventor Dean Kamen in December 2009.

“There are people out there who are making money and when times are good I honestly believe people have a moral obligation to use their wealth to help others."
—Jimi Heselden, September 2010

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