OT for home repair??

Two problems at once.

A friend in a 2002 Nissan Frontier pickup skidded on wet leaves in
the rain, and hit the guard rail with the front right corner of his
car. The right front turn signal went out, and so did his tail
lights, dashboard lights, and the beeper that beeps when he leaves his
headlights on.

We took out the light cluster on the right, and the turn-signal bulb
glass was smashed, and the filament missing, but the two metal posts
that held up the filament were not bent. We replaced the bulb and
the turn signal worked again.

We looked in the engine compartment fuse box, 12 to 18 inches from the
light cluster, and the tail light fuse was blown. Replacing that
made everything else work again.

Could hitting the guard rail blow the fuse?
Ever heard of this happening?
How?

He's 99% sure everything worked prior to that. Although one can drive
wihtout tail lights and not know it, It was dark during the accident,
and he would have noticed if the dash lights weren't working before.