LONDON – A wealthy British businessman who owns the company that makes the two-wheeled Segway has been found dead in a river in northern England after apparently falling off a cliff on one of the vehicles, police said Monday.

The body of 62-year-old Jimi Heselden and a Segway personal transporter were found in the River Wharfe and he was pronounced dead at the scene, West Yorkshire Police said.

A witness had reported seeing a man fall Sunday over a 30-foot (9-meter) drop into the river near the village of Boston Spa, 140 miles (225 kilometers) north of London.

"The incident is not believed to be suspicious," police said, indicating that they do not believe anyone else was involved.

Heselden, who bought control of the Bedford, New Hampshire-based Segway company in December, made his fortune through his firm Hesco Bastion Ltd., which developed a successful blast wall system that replaced the sand bags once used to protect troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hesco Bastion confirmed that Heselden "died in a tragic accident near his home in West Yorkshire."

Police have not revealed further details about the incident. A dozen members of Heselden's family asked for privacy Monday after placing flowers at the heavily wooded accident site, which is popular with hikers and nature lovers.

The battery-powered Segway, which is stabilized by gyroscopes, was invented by Dean Kamen, who founded the company in 1999. Kamen was traveling Monday and could not be immediately reached for comment.

The unique Segway transporter relies on electricity to recharge its batteries and travels at speeds up to 12.5 mph (20 kph), the company says on its website. It is more protective of the environment than other scooters and automobiles, the company says, claiming it is 11 times more efficient than the average American car and also can be used indoors because it has no emissions.

Yet the lack of information about the circumstances surrounding Heselden's death prompted new questions about the Segway's safety record — concerns that have been raised before.

The company recalled all its U.S. vehicles in 2006 because of a software problem that could cause its wheels to reverse direction, causing riders to fall off. The vehicle has also not been approved in Britain for road use, despite protests from Segway loyalists.

Segways have been banned by some U.S. cities but have also been embraced by other U.S. police departments as a useful tool in community patrols.

President George W. Bush tried a Segway at his family's home in Maine in 2003 but the vehicle fell over when he tried to get on. The president was able to hop over the transporter and was unhurt.

British TV host Piers Morgan, set to replace Larry King on CNN, also fell off a Segway — one of dozens of Segway mishaps that can be seen on YouTube.

Heselden left school at 15 and first worked as a coal miner before becoming a businessman and later a well known philanthropist in Britain. Hesco Bastion is a privately held company based in Leeds, near the tough Halton Moor area where Heselden grew up.

The company said Heselden recently gave 10 million pounds ($15.9 million) to the Leeds Community Foundation, raising his total charitable giving to 23 million pounds.

"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," said Tom Riordan, the chief executive of Leeds City Council.

He described Heselden as a quiet, good-natured man who was tremendously proud of being from Leeds and who believed that those who had prospered had an obligation to help others.

"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," Heselden told the Yorkshire Post earlier this year. "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."

Hesco barriers, wire frames that are fitted with liners and filled with dirt, sand or rocks, have mushroomed around the world's battlefields, where U.S. and its allied troops use them to protect their bases. The barriers have also been used to fortify flood walls in places like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina or to stop oil from fouling delicate marshes along the southern U.S. coast during the massive BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Despite the YouTube videos, one U.S. businessman was quick to defend the Segway's safety record.

Mobile Entertainment, which has offered Segway tours along the Mississippi River for the past seven years, has had more than 40,000 customers — most of them new to Segway — ride the device without any serious injuries, owner Bill Neuenschwander told The Associated Press.

"Nobody's gone off a river, nobody," he said, speaking Monday from Minneapolis, Minnesota. "I can tell you firsthand: I can't believe how safe this product is."

He said the Segway was also easy to use off the road — on gravel, grass, hills or other steep inclines.

"People get it right away," he said. "This product is perfectly safe when people respect its limitations."

5,000 Happy Meals were distributed with colored condoms instead of a plastic toy from the movie The Last Airbender.

The condoms were intended for the Provincetown, Mass. school system, which recently established a policy making them available for students of all ages; they were delivered to McDonald's distribution center in Barnstable, Mass. in error.

"The packages were so bright and colorful that they were mistaken for small toys for Happy Meals, but unfortunately most of the workers do not read English, and thought 'Ribbed Latex' was a character in the movie," said Robin Anderson, vice president of public relations for the chain, as published by El Universal of Mexico.

The mistake led to an incident in a Brewster, Mass., McDonald's, where more than a dozen 8-year-olds attending a birthday party all opened their condoms at once, and immediately blew them into balloons and started batting them around the restaurant.

The McDonald's incident also caused problems in Provincetown, where the schools accidentally received the restaurant's shipments of Last Airbender toys, and several were released to students who went into their school's nurse's office seeking condoms.

Police raid bar after US woman mistaken for Justin Bieber By staff writers From: NewsCore June 17, 2010 7:05PM Increase Text SizeDecrease Text SizePrintEmail Share
Add to DiggAdd to del.icio.usAdd to FacebookAdd to KwoffAdd to MyspaceAdd to NewsvineWhat are these?US POLICE raided a bar in Ocean City, Maryland, over the weekend after customers there confused a female drinker for Canadian teen heartthrob Justin Bieber.
Regulars at the Mug and Mallet bar confirmed police entered the venue Saturday night, following reports that Bieber, 16, was drinking underage inside reported TMZ today.

Instead, they found a 27-year-old female Bieber lookalike, with the same petite frame and tousled short brown hairstyle as that of the pint-sized pop sensation.

The woman, known only as Katie, told TMZ she was mistaken for Bieber all the time - and was forced to produce her ID card to police to prove she was not him.

Bieber is due in Maryland this year but not until September, when he will perform at the state fair.

Last weekend, at the time of his apparent sighting, he was actually in The Bahamas on a photo shoot with U.S. socialite Kim Kardashian.

During these 12 months, your access to the Service will include free demos and community features, such as member Profiles, Friending, Chat, Spectating and Brag Clip™ videos, but will not include any games, content or other services that are offered for purchase, and which must be purchased separately.