LONDON  James W. Heselden, a British businessman who invented and sold fortification containers for flood control and military protection and who owned the company that makes Segway electric scooters, died Sunday after plunging from a cliff in West Yorkshire, the police said, apparently while touring his property on a Segway. He was 62.

His body was found late Sunday morning after a passer-by reported seeing a man plummet 30 feet into the River Wharfe, the police said, adding that a “Segway-style vehicle” had also been found.

They did not say what had caused the accident.

Mr. Heselden was born in Leeds, in modest circumstances, and left school at 15. He worked as a coal miner, lost his job after the 1984 miners’ strike, and used his severance pay to start Hesco Bastion, which manufactures the Hesco barriers he invented in 1990.

Image James W. Heselden, who owned Segway Inc. until his death on Sunday. Credit... Reuters

The barriers  galvanized-steel mesh baskets rising to chest height that can be filled with dirt  were originally developed as flood control devices, and have been used in places like New Orleans and Iowa. Light, portable and easy to assemble, they have also replaced sandbags as a feature of virtually every defensive barrier deployed by coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and are standard equipment for NATO.