That's true that you may have some issues if your vehicle lacks the proper safety gear (that situation you just described is exactly what airbags are for!) then, yes, you will suffer injury, but...

Let's take an example run-through of a situation. You're driving down the highway at 55mph. You hit traffic, so you slow down to match with it and quickly come to a near-dead-stop on the freeway. The dumbshit teenager behind you though, got a text message when you were still going 35, so he's not even looking when you look in the rearview mirror and see him about two-car-lengths behind you, no room to stop. You have a fraction of a second to react, what do you do?

Check 1 - is there a car in front? If no, check speed, shift to lowest gear possible and floor it. He may still hit you, but if you decrease the difference in velocity, average collision acceleration will decrease. If there is a car in front,

Check 2 - is there a wide shoulder? Turn wheel towards it and release brake. If airbags are functioning properly, whiplash should be avoided. The car will likely be totaled, but the driver should be uninjured. HOWEVER if there is a jersey barrier, this could flip the car, so you should turn the wheel and hold in the brake, but not hard. The collision will cause you to press down harder on the brake. If there is no shoulder,

Final option - release everything and relax all muscles. Shits about to get rough. Allow your car to collide with the car in front, this will increase damage, but decrease average collision deceleration, decreasing chances of injury.

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I run through thousands of these types of simulations every day. I know how to react in an auto collision.