Unless they were also willing to armour the rest of the car, I don't think it would help much. Just be very expensive, and possibly cause more harm than good depending if it was heavy enough to impact handling...
I doubt he wanted to die considering how random it was. There's got to be better ways of getting to that point than driving around with a light out. I'm guessing he was screwed if they found something he had with him, panicked and tried to get away... though not very far apparently. I didn't quite get if he stopped, or they intercepted him there.
Or maybe he was just on something.