It feels like I'm about to give a Physics lecture, lol. I liked physics in school, so if you walk with me here, you'll not be lost (or maybe just a little). Shall we?

Collisions can be termed as an impact between 2 particles, creating an exchange of forces between those particles in a short time span.

You could be in your own lane all your life, fulfilling Newton's first law, then boom, you meet someone (or let's say you collide with someone, or they collide with you, lol).

Sources say that perfectly elastic collisions are hard to find, but what is this we have here? Both of us, I mean. There should be some forces of cohesion and adhesion somewhere in this mix, but no, we have tension to deal with. Is it until I buy superglue?

Save the talk of conservation of kinetic energy and momentum. The world would pay to watch us defy this important principle because I've expended all my energy thinking about what could be and why it should be so.

I'm trying to say so much in very few words, so here is a summary.

Suppose a vehicle collides elastically with another object, the vehicle will necessarily rebound. The change in momentum as the vehicle rebounds is greater than in an equivalent inelastic collision. The force on an occupant is therefore greater, and, that is clearly worse for the occupant.

If this occupant makes it out alive, we'll have another lesson on the third law🙃