Bend Man Dies in Electric Scooter Crash Inside Construction Zone

BEND, Ore. – A 40-year-old Bend man died Thursday night after crashing his electric scooter into a large rebar grid inside a road construction zone in northeast Bend.

According to the Bend Police Department, officers responded at approximately 10:47 p.m. on Oct. 29 to a welfare check on NE Division Street near Third Street. A passerby had reported seeing a man lying in the roadway.

Officers arrived and found the man, identified as Tommy Robert Banks, 40, of Bend, dead inside the construction zone.

Investigators determined Banks had been riding an electric scooter northbound through a section of NE Division Street that was closed to traffic for construction when he struck a large rebar grid in the roadway and crashed.

Banks was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.

The construction project at the scene is being handled by the North Unit Irrigation District, correcting an earlier identification of the agency.

The incident remains documented under Bend Police case number 2026-00060549.