A Hitchin woman who was driving down Whitehurst Avenue yesterday afternoon was shocked to find a tree had blown onto a car, forcing the road to close.

Mum Erica Willoughby-Smith got to the root of the story as she took the photo above.

Erica said: “I was driving into town when I saw a tree had fallen over a car in Whitehurst Avenue.

“The cherry trees in Whitehurst Avenue are beautiful at this time of the year, but I was a bit shocked to see one had blown across a parked car.

“Fair play to the council and police. They came in minutes, closed the road, with the tree surgeons cutting up the tree, and the road was reopened in an hour or so.

“I talked to the tree surgeon who told me the inside of the tree was spongy which meant it was rotten, although the recent high winds can’t have helped.

“There were also branches down in Periwinkle Lane too.

“I talked to someone who lives round there and they said they didn’t recognise the car, and they thought it might have been someone who parks their car and walks to the station to avoid station parking fees – so I think they might have got a shock when they got back.”

A police spokesman added: “The road was closed from before 3pm to just after 4pm while the tree was cut up and disposed of, after it had fallen on a blue Vauxhall Corsa.”