Commuting - safety releases on fenders

I had my sks chromoplastics off for a month or two, and now I really want to reinstall them for the commute. a quick question... are the little safety releases neccesary on the front fender? I have all the hardware except I am now missing one of them. Is there really much chance of flipping due to something stuck in the fender? Has anyone actually had this happen? Or, if you have the safety releases, have they prevented it from happening? Just wondering before I go in search of some replacements.

I had my sks chromoplastics off for a month or two, and now I really want to reinstall them for the commute. a quick question... are the little safety releases neccesary on the front fender? I have all the hardware except I am now missing one of them. Is there really much chance of flipping due to something stuck in the fender? Has anyone actually had this happen? Or, if you have the safety releases, have they prevented it from happening? Just wondering before I go in search of some replacements.

I don't have them installed on one bike. My other bike that I use all the time has them and I've never ever actually needed to have the safety releases there, I've never had anything get stuck in there.

I have a set of Esge fenders on my Raleigh SuperCourse. I believe they were the predecessors to the SKS fenders & they don't have any kind of safety release. A few years ago, my front wheel picked up a stick which jammed between the fender & tire, the fender folded over itself twice before everything jammed at the point where the lower struts mount to the fender. I wasn't moving very fast so didn't flip but I lost about 6" off my fender & had to compensate with a very long home made flap. A quick release would probably have prevented the damage to the fender.

I have them on my bike and they have popped out once. However what would happen if a stick was stuck behind the forks - I think something like this happened in the film "Breaking Away". Dont worry about them - just watch for the drivers.

Mine have activated once, when a piece of barbed wire got sucked up into the stays. Im not sure if I would have flipped without them, but they do work. The wire and fender just rattled around.
Chromoplastic fenders are very tough, and can turn inside-out, really jamming up the wheel.
I feel OK using fixed stays on a metal fender, or a brittle plastic one, but not on SKS.

thanks for the advice... since my commute is on decent paved road I think I'll chance it for a little while and just pick up a new pair when I get a chance... and I'll watch out for barbed wire...