A 58-year-old man killed while waiting for a tram in Flemington on Wednesday might not have died had he been at an upgraded tram stop.

The man was killed in a tragic series of events after a speeding ambulance crashed into a car thatpinned the man against the side of the tram stop on Racecourse Road.

VicRoads is in the process of upgrading the city's unsafe tram stops, of which there are about 1800, to new 'super stops'. These are raised off the road on a thick curb – designed, in part, to protect people waiting for the tram from cars.

About 400 of those stops have been upgraded so far, at a cost of about $1 million a stop. Tragically the Racecourse Road stop had not.

The 58-year-old, whose name has not yet been released by police, was waiting for the tram about 3.25pm. 

The ambulance had been speeding down the tram tracks with lights and sirens blaring, on the way to another crash between a car and a motorcycle on Langs Road in Ascot Vale.

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It smashed into a blue sedan that was trying to turn right across the tram tracks into Newmarket Plaza. The collision pushed the sedan back into the tram stop, pinning the man. He was taken to hospital but died soon after.

Graham Currie, Monash University's chair of public transport, said the raised lip of one of the super-tram-stops may have saved the man's life.

"It might have. If the passenger was walking to or from that place, they may have had better protection. If they were waiting at the stop, certainly the stop has more protection because there's a giant curb," he said.

Mr Currie has co-authored a paper on the safety benefits of the new tram stops, which finds they reduce fatal and serious accidents by about 80 per cent.

He said the on-road tram stops, with only a small railing between people waiting for a tram and traffic, offered little protection.

"One of their problems is they are in the middle of the road. The protection of the railings and getting to and from them is very poor. The platform stops [offer] a much higher degree of protection for passengers."

Detective Sergeant Mark Patrick, speaking to reporters at the scene on Wednesday afternoon, said the collision was "no one's fault". 

"It's very sad circumstances that someone was just standing by waiting to catch a tram and this collision here has occurred," he said.

Yarra Trams has been contacted for comment.