Yes, that was my impression. If he hit one like the one I have for pulling a large travel trailer, it is a bit larger than the one in your picture, and probably weighs about 25 lb. I wouldn't expect many cars to hit that thing without taking some potentially serious damage. example: http://imgur.com/8Fa0CVf

Seriously. A car being damaged by hitting that should surprise no one and there should be no controversy or debate.

Debris sometimes hits cars. It's not good for them. End of story.

The vast majority of cars on the road would still be drive-able after striking something like that (though many of them would miss it entirely dues to increased ground clearance). Even the vehicle in the blog post was drive-able, until it burst into flames...

Striking road debris is _incredibly_ unlikely to cause a fire in a 'normal' vehicle. The placement and design of the fuel tank makes a puncture incredibly unlikely in the first place, and even in the event of a puncture, the most common outcome (by a wide margin) is that you run out of gas... There are obviously exceptions to this, but it's rare enough than it's a big deal (recall worthy) when a vehicle design lends itself to this sort of event.