Walking through a park in Chicago a few years back we saw a police officer on a Segway. How cool we thought, until she reached up with both hands to try to adjust her helmet. She ended up on the ground while the Segway took off on its own, luckily only running into a wall in that crowded park. That scene sure came back to me today when I read this story!

The multi-millionaire owner of the Segway company died in a freak accident yesterday when he rode one of the high-tech two-wheel machines off a cliff and into a river...Jimi Heselden, 62, plunged into the River Wharfe while riding around his West Yorkshire estate on a rugged country version of the Segway...He bought the firm last December...Mr Heselden was worth £166million thanks to his defence company Hesco Bastion

Ironically

the world's leading manufacturer of protective barriers...in 1990 pioneered 'blast walls'...initially meant to help prevent land erosion...which replaced sandbags as protection for soldiers on the frontline in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Best known for his charity work with Leeds Community Foundation and Help for Heroes, a military charity.He said 'We often get thank-you letters from troops, saying how one of our walls saved their lives when a bomb went off and (Help for Heroes)is our way of showing them how much we appreciate what they do.'

His death comes just a week after he became one of the UK's most generous philanthropists, having given £10million to the Leeds Community Foundation a charity foundation he set up in 2008 which helps disadvantaged youngsters, vulnerable elderly people and health improvement projects in the south and east of the city of Leeds.

The company's latest innovation is the R-House, a new style of temporary housing or shelter that provides protection and comfortable living space for up to eight people in the aftermath of disasters.