Are the people in a car seated in the deformation aeras ?
depends on which side is up when the car gets hit. Same as in airplanes.
Most survivors in an aircrash come from the areas arround the break zones. It's sometimes even worse if you are sitting next to a heavily built up area like a door jam or cockpit. Things like G-loads on your aorta and all that.
The engineering tries to keep it as simple as surviving a specified G level in a specified direction, after that you take your chances in a prang. Personally if it's survivable at all I would prefer a three piece breakup of the fuselage to give me a chance of getting out of one of the breaks before the fireball.
So all we have here is a compliance issue and how far and how deep does it go? Not for us mere obeservers to judge from afar.