A 19-year-old dirt bike rider suffered serious injuries in a crash Saturday in the desert near the sprawling Project Jupiter data center construction site, prompting a rescue effort that ended with the rider being airlifted from a makeshift landing zone off Pete Domenici Highway. Crews used an off-road Humvee to transport him out of the desert before a helicopter could reach him.
Sunland Park Fire initially reported an injured ATV rider, but later clarified that the patient was actually a 19-year-old dirt bike rider, according to KTSM 9 News. The crash happened off Pete Domenici Highway near the Project Jupiter site, and the rider was ultimately flown out by El Paso Fire's FireSTAR helicopter program, the station reported.
Getting to him wasn't simple. Another dirt bike rider guided responding crews to the patient in the desert, then met units directly on Pete Domenici Highway and the access road leading to Project Jupiter, per the same account. Sunland Park Fire, working alongside Doña Ana Fire Rescue, used a Humvee off-road patient rescue unit to transport the injured rider out of the desert to the helicopter landing zone, which Sunland Park Fire set up right on the road leading into the construction site.
A Desert Corridor Built for Off-Road Riders and Now an AI Megaproject
Pete Domenici Highway, or New Mexico State Road 136, is a 9.157-mile stretch connecting Interstate 10 in West El Paso to the Santa Teresa Port of Entry, according to the Federal Highway Administration. That same stretch of desert now borders Project Jupiter, a 1,400-acre hyperscale AI data center campus in Santa Teresa and Sunland Park that Doña Ana County commissioners approved for up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds last September. The campus is Oracle’s project, and its fact sheet lists Oracle and OpenAI as developers.
Construction on the site had reached 26% completion by this month, even as the project faces regulatory friction over water use involving a Santa Teresa well, per Construction Review. Construction Review also reports route disputes and delays over a planned natural-gas pipeline for the project.
Specialized Gear Built for Loose Sand and Extreme Heat
The terrain around Sunland Park and Santa Teresa is a mix of loose sand, rocky arroyos and extreme heat with no natural shade, conditions that make off-road patient extraction physically demanding for emergency crews, per WEKU. In this rescue, Sunland Park Fire used a Hummer off-road patient rescue unit to transport the rider out of the desert.
Once the rider was clear of the desert, the FireSTAR helicopter program took over. The air medical service was established in late 2024 through a five-year contract between the El Paso Fire Department and Air Methods, and provides airborne critical care. The partnership lets El Paso Fire rapidly deploy airborne critical care across the Texas and Southern New Mexico borderland, a capability Hoodline detailed in an earlier Upper Valley crash that also ended in a critical airlift.
A Recurring Pattern in Borderland Desert Recreation
Saturday's crash required a multi-agency emergency response.
It remains unclear whether the crash occurred on private construction land or in open public desert, and the rider's current condition has not been released.
