Criminal's vehicle almost smashed into building (12)
I believe the answer is:
construction
'building' is the definition.
(construction can mean a building)
'criminal's vehicle almost smashed into' is the wordplay.
'criminal's' becomes 'cons' (abbreviation for 'convict').
'vehicle almost' becomes 'truc' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'smashed' indicates anagramming the letters.
'into' with letters rearranged gives 'tion'.
'cons'+'truc'+'tion'='CONSTRUCTION'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for construction that I've seen before include "Industry of erecting buildings" , "Process of erecting buildings" , "Act of building" , "Building; interpretation" .)