See all Motoring News
It's early December, Christmas is approaching and so 'tis the season to be jolly. Or bloody nuts, in the case of German insurance giant Allianz, which clearly has too much time on its hands. As it has crash-tested a Christmas tree. No, you've not misread that.
The purpose of this cheerful escapade is to supposedly highlight the dangers - to all road users - of transporting poorly secured Christmas trees on the roof of your car. Thus, the company is giving drivers advice on how to load up this festive item, in order to prevent a few low-flying Christmas missiles decapitating innocent bystanders and the like.
Melanie Kreutner is an accident analyst for the Allianz Centre for Technology, who said: "Regardless of anything else, you've got to fasten the tree so tightly that it can't move. Otherwise when you slam the brakes on, it presents a danger for the driver, passengers and other road users. Just bundling the tree into the car and letting the excess poke out of the open side windows isn't a solution either. Nor is positioning it in the passenger seat of your car, or if you have a convertible driving with the top down with the tree riding shotgun."
Oh dear - we've done quite a few of these in our time. There are more tips from Allianz on how to correctly fasten a Norwegian spruce to the top of your motor, but we think it's just health and safety gone mad. So instead, watch the video of the tree crash test here and remember: it's a dangerous, flying-tree infested world out there this Christmas. Stay safe, people.