All the bungees I've ever bought say to not use them in any safety-critical application
I do use them a lot myself, but never singly or where one failure can cause another one to fail. And never where a bungee failure can create a serious hazard.
The way things work where I live, each vehicle in a multi-car crash is liable only for the direct damage it does. For instance, you're stopped at a light and someone hits you from behind, pushing you into the car ahead. You pay for the car you hit, and the guy who hit you pays for you. Once insurance limits are exceeded or after the settlements have been made the fracas begins. The guy in back will end up with the bill for all that, but all the courts can do is lodge claims against any real property they own and issue judgements against them for the rest. They cannot be forced to pay if they have no money or real property, and after ten years the judgement expires unless you pay to have your Lawyer renew it for another ten years. I have no real property of any worth- you can't get one dime out of me other than the limited cash I have on hand at the time of judgement. Most people are much like me so in most crashes the claimant gets screwed by the system which is supposed to prevent that from happening
And if they have no insurance you get screwed twice unless you have your own coverage for such things. And because your insurer had to pay out, your rates will go up even though you did absolutely nothing wrong or illegal- in effect you're being made to pay for guy who hit you
Welcome to SC USA, where a few years ago the State government announced that 1 in 5 cars licensed here were not insured, and they're still not actively trying to fix that. Only when someone gets pulled over for a ticket or winds up in a crash do they ever prosecute for uninsured vehicles here, yet they know who those people are and where they live too. They just don't care about you, me, or anyone else either as long as you pay your taxes
Phil