1995 camaro GM crash test
 

Looks like things should have gone better for the Camaro. One of the reasons why they do the crash test is to see what kind of collateral damage an accident can cause. If a car explodes into lots of pieces, scattering metal and glass over a wider area, the car fails the crash test. The test above shows the fender flopping around / flying off the car after impact. Not good.

Obviously it passed though, so this may be early in the testing cycle, or might have been within acceptable limits. But keeping the flying metal and glass down to a minimum is important.

the fenders are plastic, of course it crumbled, the important part is the shape of the passenger compartment stayed the same