Robert Flagg / WFAA-TV

A bulletproof vest saved one officer from being impaled by a fence post.

DALLAS — Body armor is designed to shield police from flying bullets. But the protective gear took on an unexpected function late Thursday night after an officer's squad car tangled with a suspected drunk driver in Oak Cliff.

As it turns out, the bulletproof vest is also fence post-proof.

Just before midnight, two squad cars were driving south in the 800 block of Westmoreland Avenue when, police say, the suspect's Chevrolet Tahoe turned in front of them.

One cruiser collided with the SUV; the other police car crashed into a fence.

A six-foot fence post jammed into the chest of Officer Larry Ashley, 30, but his bulletproof vest kept it from impaling him.

Officer Ashley was in stable condition Friday morning with non-life threatening injuries, police said.

Keli Ashely says she is glad her husband had on his bulletproof vest when he left home Thursday morning. "If it wouldn't have been for his vest, it would have probably penetrated his chest," said Keli Ashley.

It's not his first time to be injured in the line of duty. Several years ago he broke his back struggling with a murder suspect. He suffered a lot of pain and lost almost everything when the worker's comp insurance delayed or refused some of his treatments.

Doctors thought he might never be able to work the streets again, but he fought to be back out there.

"His heart and soul was to be a police officer. As much as I hate it as a wife, he loves it. He sees it as a family and he will never abandon his family," said his wife.

She says he isn't saying much about his latest near death experience, but he already wants to know when he can work again.

"This won't stop him. As soon as a doctor says he can go back, he'll go back and I will support him," she said.

The Tahoe driver, whose name was not released, faces a charge of intoxication assault. Dallas police Senior Cpl. Gerardo Monreal said he did not know the condition of the driver.

The other officer involved in the crash was treated and released.

DallasNews.com and Rebecca Lopez contributed to this report.