My neighbors car was a victim of hit and run

So, I would be completely safe wrapped in a 2 tons of jello as compared to someone sitting in a one ton vehicle in said collision of jello vs vehicle?

No, you would suffocate. I don't know what this argument is supposed to imply.

I don't think so. It isn't the mass but rather the distribution and absorption of force. As far as the steering wheel, that's more of a design defect.

It's both.

Crumple zones allow the force to be distributed more safely. This benefits the people in the vehicle with the crumple zone. It also decreases the acceleration and force at the moment of the collision by absorbing the shock in expendable areas. This benefits people in both vehicles by reducing the force of the collision. If both vehicles have crumple zones, then this benefit is further magnified because it reduces the force (and thus the acceleration) of the collision even further.

Force is applied equally in both directions. It is beneficial to both vehicles to have crumple zones as opposed to "stiffer frames" as both crumple zones reduce the force and acceleration ultimately applied to the passengers of both vehicles.

Now, as far as your comments on mass: obviously mass plays a role. It's the acceleration. The force applied to both vehicles is equal. The acceleration is not. With newton's second law we see that f=ma. Acceleration is equal to force divided by mass. As your mass increases, acceleration decreases.

Imagine two cars of equal mass with rigid frames colliding at 100mph. Likely they will both suffer catastrophic damage. They will either stick together in the collision or bounce off each other backwards. In either case, the acceleration will be the same for both.

Now, imagine a car with a rigid frame colliding with a semi with a rigid frame. The semi truck will plow through the car, sending the car flying backwards, while the semi continues forward at a slightly reduced speed. The driver of the semi will see some risk of injury, while the driver of the car will be dead.

A massive object colliding with a less massive object will always behave this way.

Obviously many factors adjust this, like the height of the vehicle and effectiveness of crumple zones. But mass plays a huge part as well, by determining both the force involved in the collision and the acceleration of the vehicles involved.

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