I'm not sure if it's appropriate but congratulations on your purchase (1998 S70 T5Se Silver R.I.P.), it seems you made a wise choice.

The difference is that not only did you survive, but you opened the door and left under your own power. You might be stiff in the morning, but you didn't stay in the hospital, probably won't miss work and won't require physio therapy. There's more to safe engineering than a "5 star rating in frontal crashes", it's better to walk away than have to be extracated and endure months of therapy (as you might have had to in a different car).

I commute a fair bit too and thought of my family when I bought my cars, like you said, it's only a split second (and sometimes someone else's fault).
--
'98 V70, '95 850 GLE 10V