While an accident took Jason Ross from athlete to quadriplegic in an instant, it didn’t dull his drive to achieve. In the face of extreme adversity, he forged a career and is now a senior water engineer and GHD associate. By Mary Searle Bell. First published in the Water New Zealand Journal.
As a teenager, Jason Ross’s plan was to join the RNZAF as a pilot and fly Skyhawks – he even went so far as to do testing with the Air Force in his 6th form year. While he passed the aptitude test, the air force was concerned he could be too tall for the Skyhawks and ejecting from the plane could result in broken femurs. In the end, he was told to complete his final year at school first.
A natural athlete, Jason had represented St Kentigern College in six senior teams in one year, receiving colours in all of them; the most ever awarded by the school.
“I considered becoming a physio and to travel the world working with elite athletes.”
In the end, he went with his third choice – civil engineering – and in 1988, aged 18, Jason started his degree, doing well on his assignments and tests in his first semester. However, on the first day of the August holidays, his world irrevocably changed.
He was headed to Mt Ruapehu for a weekend’s skiing when the driver of the car fell asleep. The car accelerated into a ditch, up through a fence and flew through the air before coming crashing down on Jason’s side of the car, pressing the roof right down onto the top of his headrest. The force of the accident compressed Jason’s neck, sending his C6 vertebrae shooting outwards and completely severing his spinal cord.
Lucky to even survive, his neck injury meant his life was now to be lived in a wheelchair, paralysed from the chest down and with limited arm strength.
Jason spent seven months in the Auckland Spinal Unit trying to build up some strength.
“I remember they had me try and bench press a broomstick – just the stick, no brush attached – and I couldn’t do it. It felt like lifting 100kg.”
While there, the university thought he may be able to sit exams, but when they saw him, lying there with weights hanging off his head to keep his neck and spine straight while it healed, they immediately concluded there was no way he could sit exams or even study.
“I have no finger movement and very limited movement of my hands. Luckily, my grades were good so the university decided to aggregate that first year and pass me.”
While Jason was in the spinal unit, he visited the university and met with the Dean of engineering. At that time the Dean believed it would be too difficult to continue the degree with such a serious injury. Jason being determined, was discharged from the Auckland Spinal Unit on a Friday at end of February, and started back at university on the following Monday.
“At the beginning, Mum would drive me to Uni, and over time, when I got stronger and more confident, I started carpooling with friends. Fortunately, all my classes were in the engineering school and I only had to cross the road for a few labs. Also, my best friend was doing the same degree as me along with a couple of guys from school, and they’d help me out.
“The Uni also gave me a car park right behind the school and right next to the maintenance lift, which helped a lot.
“Initially, I thought I could do the required nine papers plus labs that first year back, but I was too weak. I could only manage five papers plus labs. This meant that by the end of my fourth year I was trailing slightly and had to go back for a fifth year to finish off four papers.”
Jason completed his degree in 1992 and in doing so became the first quadriplegic to complete a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons) at the University of Auckland. He received a standing ovation at his graduation ceremony, which was a very proud moment for his family, friends, and himself.
Then he began to start looking for a job.
“The big companies would advertise job opportunities at Uni for graduates to send in their applications for interviews. As soon as they saw me in a wheelchair, I could tell by the look on their faces that it was going to be a waste of time.
“Other companies tried really hard to accommodate my disability, but simple things like having no mobility toilet access meant they couldn’t hire me.”
It went on like this for months and months, and as September of the following year approached and Jason still was without a job, he knew something had to change.
“I knew I’d soon be competing with a fresh bunch of graduates, so I did a bit of research and found an organisation called Workbridge, which specialises in finding jobs for people with disabilities and other challenges.
“I said I’d do three months’ work for free to give me some job experience, which would put me ahead of the other grads. They rang around for me and got me a position with Manukau Consultants, the engineering branch of Manukau City Council.
“I worked alongside the engineers from 10am to 3pm. However, after a month, I got pneumonia and had to leave. I thought, that’s a great advertisement for someone in a wheelchair.”
But then, Jason got a call from the acting CEO of Manukau Consultants, asking if he’d like to interview for a position they had going in their structural engineering team.
“If it wasn’t for that gentleman, I wouldn’t have my career. He was willing to give me a go and judged me as a normal person.
“It turned out there was no interview. He took me to meet the team and said, this is your boss, this is your desk, if you want the job you can start on Monday. He then showed me my carpark and said my co-workers would help me out of my car until I was strong enough to do it myself.”
After seven years in the structures team, Jason decided it was time for a change.
“I moved across to the water team and started out doing local watermains for Manukau Council – things like site measure ups with the help of an assistant, watermains alignments, connection details, CAD drawings, and tender documents.
“Around the same time GHD came across from Australia and acquired us. We started doing work for Australia, and their specialists assisted us with larger project wins. We learnt a lot and could see the benefits of being part of an international company.”
Jason says, over the years he’s become a specialist in steel and polyethylene pipe design for large watermains, working on numerous projects for Watercare, including Hunua No.4, Huia No.1, Orewa No.1, and many other watermains throughout the country.
And while he has risen to the level of a GHD associate and senior water engineer, he has been limited in his career: “I’ve never done construction management as I can’t go to site readily.”
Technology advances have made things easier – he uses design tools such as CAD and Civil3D, and also views and checks designs in BIM by utilising a special mouse adapted for his disability.
“I wear a special band around my hand which allows me to hold a pencil with a rubber tip. I use this to type with and operate the computer. With the advancements in AI, life with a disability will only get easier; especially in assisting people like myself.”
But perhaps the biggest limiter to his work is simply how much energy he uses doing the basics.
“I wake at 5am to start getting ready for the day and I’m in bed by 8pm most nights. I have no abdominal muscles due to the paralysis, so I use so much energy balancing in my chair to stay upright.
“Over the last couple of years, things have become a lot tougher, and I struggle with tiredness. My job too, now I’m an experienced senior, has a lot more pressure and stress. In the last six months of 2024 I had a few serious health issues.”
Jason is quick to credit the support he gets, particular from his co-workers and GHD as a company.
“The team at GHD have been amazing to me. I have come to realise I have people watching my back – they help me out of my car by getting my chair out of the boot, they don’t leave me alone in the building if I’m working late, get me hot drinks, stay with me during fire drills, and there’s no pressure to come back to work when I’m unwell.”
Now aged 55, Jason has started looking to the future. His goal is to continue working as long as he can, as he enjoys the people he works with and mentoring all the young graduates within the water team. He says he would also like to travel more while he is mobile and get back into sport, perhaps table tennis.
Jason’s career success is spectacular, particularly in light of the fact not many quadriplegics work at all.
“I studied hard for it, and I enjoy it. I love engineering, and GHD is a great company to work for.”