Kamen is a brilliant person, but his prediction that the Segway would be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy didn't exactly pan out. (Image by Jared C. Benedict.)

Segway inventor Dean Kamen is fine, but Jimi Heselden, the man who purchased the company less than a year ago, was killed last Sunday when he rode his two-wheeled, electric vehicle off a 30-foot cliff in the North of London. One assumes it was an error in judgement or mechanical failure. The Segway had epic-level hype and was a huge disappointment. An excerpt about Heselden from the Yahoo News story:

“Heselden, a high school dropout who went on to make a fortune developing a blast wall system used to protect troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, never abandoned his gritty roots. He used his money to help people in the working-class area around Leeds where he grew up, earning folk hero status there.

The 62-year-old Heselden had bought control of the Bedford, N.H.-based Segway in December.

The company’s unique two-wheeler was introduced with much fanfare in 1999 by its American founder, Dean Kamen, as a means of transport that was more protective of the environment than other scooters and automobiles. The company claims the Segway is 11 times more efficient than the average American car. It can be used indoors because it has no emissions, making it popular with some police departments and private security firms, who use it to patrol indoor malls.

But it has also been linked to some high-profile mishaps.”