There is speculation that signage was the cause of the tragic deaths of three people when a wall collapsed at a construction site in Melbourne last week.

The board-mounted sign which promoted the latest $800m development at the CUB site on Swanston Street was a typical building site sign, running the length of site. It may have been a key factor in the collapse of the wall.

Union members working at a site opposite say the sign stood over the height of the 2.5m wall that is was attached to, they estimate by half a metre. This would indicate that the signage was printed on a 3m or 3.2m wide format printer.

For investigators there is growing interest in the advertising board and its sail-like effect in a high wind, as a powerful gust of wind hit inner Melbourne around the time of the collapse on Thursday. The theory is that the wind power pushed against the board, which then pulled the poorly constructed wall over with it.

Tragically passers-by Marie-Faith Fiawoo, and teenage siblings Bridget and Alexander Jones lost their lives when walking by the site.

Richard Eckhaus, chairman of Engineers Australia structural college says that if a hoarding was higher than the wall it was attached to, it could lead to a collapse.

Charmaine Moldrich, CEO, Outdoor Media Association told Australian Printer, “The outdoor advertising industry goes to significant lengths to ensure the safety of the third party signage infrastructure that we are responsible for. The industry complies with a number of different safety standards determined by local and state planning authorities as well as the relevant construction and building industry bodies, with third party signage adherent to significantly more regulation than on-premise signage.  We are unable to directly comment on the specific incident in Melbourne, which is an on-premise sign and not covered by the OMA as an industry body. The OMA has a strong safety record in Australia that we will continue to uphold.”