Epic marketing fail:
The flamboyant former miner at the head of the Segway scooter company has died in a freak accident by sliding on one of the miniature two-wheelers off a cliff.
Jimi Heselden, who latched on to an international craze for the upright, motorised "green commuter machines", was testing a cross-country version when he skidded into the river Wharfe which runs beside his Yorkshire estate.
Mr Heselden made his money supplying updated gabions to US, NATO and British forces in various conflict zones.
Heselden lived near the British Library's vast storage depot at Thorp Arch, a village on the other side of the river from the small, sought-after town of Boston Spa. He lost his mining job in the pit closures after the 1984-85 miners' strike, but put his knowledge of geology and soil science to good use. Updating the medieval defence system of gabions - baskets filled with stones and crammed together to create makeshift walls - he patented the Bastion, which proved an immediate bestseller for his Hesco firm.
I remember that miners always seemed to know a hell of a lot about soil and rock geology; not surprisingly, because their lives depended on it. It was the sort of thing you’d hear them chatting about in pubs. It’s just a shame that Mr Heselden was apparently less well up on ballistics.
Still, I wonder if his decision to diversify into niche commuting had/has any wider political implications, in the sense that he wanted to diversify from fortifications.
Hey, did you see this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/10/saif-al-islam-gaddafi-libya
Posted by: David | September 28, 2010 at 05:59 AM
Is this the machine that a certain ex-MP was trying to promote, and was compaining about the authorities saying that ithad to have a licence?
Posted by: Guano | September 28, 2010 at 12:14 PM