The British owner of the firm that makes the Segway scooter died after riding one of the futuristic two-wheeled machines over a cliff and into a river, police said today.
The body of millionaire Jimi Heselden, 62, was discovered in the River Wharfe near his home in the town of Boston Spa in northern England yesterday, a spokeswoman for West Yorkshire Police said.
The police said the incident is not believed to be suspicious.
Heselden led a British team which bought US-based Segway Inc in December last year and now manufactures and distributes the distinctive self-balancing vehicles.
The Segway was introduced in 2002 amid great fanfare as a means of revolutionising urban transportation. They use gyroscopes, computers and electric motors to cruise to 12 miles an hour.
A former coal miner who left school at 15, Heselden made his fortune with the Hesco Bastion firm, which developed the 'Hesco' blast walls that are widely used in Afghanistan and Iraq.
His death came a week after he became one of Britain's top philanthropists, giving £10m sterling to a charity and taking his lifetime donations to £23m, the company said.
