A Victorian police officer is out of surgery after being speared in the face with a metal pole when his divisional van crashed.
The 33-year-old first constable was driving a marked police van when it hit a barricade at a tram stop outside Flinders Street station at 2.15am on Tuesday.
The pole pierced the windscreen and came out through the rear cabin of the van.
The constable was struck in the left-hand side of his face, causing serious head and facial injuries.
He came out of surgery late on Tuesday afternoon and is in a stable condition at The Alfred hospital.
Another constable had minor injuries and has been released from hospital.
Commander Dean Stevenson said the van was driving about 40 km/h to a routine job along tram tracks when the accident occurred.
He said it was too early speculate about the cause of the collision, but thinks the officer was lucky to have escaped more serious injuries.
Yarra Trams is checking the condition of nine of its central pedestrian barriers.
"As with any significant safety incident, we will carry out an investigation to establish the root cause and any other contributing factors," Yarra Trams communications manager Simon Murphy said.
The central pedestrian barriers, first installed in 2007, were put at nine Melbourne tram stops as a safety measure to prevent pedestrians from crossing the tracks between the tram platforms.
