diff --git a/python/podio/__init__.py b/python/podio/__init__.py
index 477247fde..483885729 100644
--- a/python/podio/__init__.py
+++ b/python/podio/__init__.py
@@ -26,6 +26,14 @@
 
   from . import EventStore
 
+  try:
+    # For some reason the test_utils only work at (test) runtime if they are
+    # imported with the rest of podio. Otherwise they produce a weird c++ error.
+    # This happens even if we import the *exact* same file.
+    from . import test_utils  # noqa: F401
+  except ImportError:
+    pass
+
   # Make sure that this module is actually usable as podio even though most of
   # it is dynamically populated by cppyy
   sys.modules["podio"] = podio
diff --git a/tests/root_io/write_frame_root.py b/tests/root_io/write_frame_root.py
index 2609c602a..e0525a268 100644
--- a/tests/root_io/write_frame_root.py
+++ b/tests/root_io/write_frame_root.py
@@ -1,12 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
 """Script to write a Frame in ROOT format"""
 
-import os
-import sys
-
-sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.environ.get("PODIO_BASE"), "python", "podio"))
-
-import test_utils  # pylint: disable=import-error, disable=wrong-import-position
+from podio import test_utils
 
 from podio.root_io import Writer  # pylint: disable=wrong-import-position