Industrial buildings in Melbourne are mostly built to be tough. Tilt-slab concrete walls, steel portal frames, few windows. The weak point is almost always the same: the big door at the front that lets vehicles in during the day. Three incidents this year show what happens when a vehicle is pointed at it at night.
Heidelberg West, March
At about 2am on Monday 23 March, a flat-bed tow truck was reversed into a mechanic's workshop on McEwan Road, according to Victoria Police and VicNews. Two offenders then set the building alight. One of them was believed to have caught fire before both left in the tow truck.
Fire Rescue Victoria was called at 2.07am. VicNews reported the roughly 10 by 30 metre tilt-slab building partly collapsed, so crews fought the fire from outside, and had it under control by 3.54am. About 14 vehicles and a tow truck stored inside were destroyed. Police described the fire as suspicious.
Hallam, April
Just after 3am on Tuesday 7 April, police believe a vehicle was reversed into a car repair business on the Princes Highway in Hallam, the Dandenong Star Journal reported. The offenders went inside and then drove away in the vehicle. At the time of reporting, police had not established whether anything was taken, and they appealed for dashcam and CCTV footage.
Spotswood, May
Early on Tuesday 26 May, a ute rammed a converted factory on Hudsons Road in Spotswood, the ABC reported. The building housed a law firm and several other businesses, and a man lived and worked there. Senior Constable Francis Deague said the ute's occupants allegedly started a fire and drove away.
More than 50 firefighters spent over two hours on the fire. The building was lost and neighbouring premises were damaged. Nine people were evacuated, and nobody was hurt. Police said it was unclear whether the attack was linked to the series of firebombings of Melbourne hospitality venues.
The vehicle is the tool
These were not all the same kind of crime. Two involved fire, and one appears to have been a break-in. But each started the same way. The offenders didn't pick a lock, cut a padlock or break a window. They used a vehicle's weight to open the building.
That approach has obvious advantages for an offender. It is fast, usually under a minute. It doesn't need tools or skill. It works on doors that would resist a crowbar for a long time. And the vehicle doubles as the getaway. In Heidelberg West it was a tow truck, a heavy vehicle with a steel tray at the back, which is close to an ideal battering ram.
Reversing in, as police believe happened in Heidelberg West and Hallam, keeps the engine and front airbags out of the impact and leaves the driver facing the exit.
What stops it, and what doesn't
A roller door or panel lift door is designed to keep out people and weather. It isn't designed to absorb a vehicle. Upgrading the door alone rarely solves the problem, because the door is fixed to its guides and the building, and something in that chain usually gives first.
The more effective approach is to keep the vehicle from reaching the door. That means steel bollards set into the apron in front of the door, anchored deep enough to take the hit. For doors that need vehicle access every day, removable bollards can sit in sleeves across the opening, lifted out in the morning and locked back in at close. Fixed bollards can protect walls, glazing and pedestrian doors that never need vehicle access.
It's just as important to be clear about what bollards don't do. They don't stop someone on foot throwing a burning object through a window or over a fence. They don't stop arson. What they can do is take away the vehicle as a quick way in, so an offender has to try something slower, noisier or less certain.
We haven't seen any of these three buildings, and we don't know what was or wasn't in front of their doors. These are general observations about the method, not judgements about any particular site.
Checklist for workshop and factory owners
- Count your vehicle-width openings. Every roller door, gate and panel door that a car could reverse up to is a candidate.
- Look at the apron. If there's a clear run-up from the street or car park straight to the door, a vehicle can build up speed.
- Think about what's inside. Workshops storing customer vehicles, as in Heidelberg West, can lose far more than their own equipment in a single night.
- Plan for daily access. Removable, keyed bollards only work if staff actually put them back each night, so placement has to suit the morning routine.
- Keep cameras on the approach. Number plates and the vehicle's path in are what police ask for first.