Fire engineer at a place i used to work is unpaid, they follow a permanent employee around for 6 weeks because they can't actually do any work. Civil internship is similar and also unpaid. Engineering internships for local small city government I did was also unpaid. Most don't budget for paying interns and if they do, then the intern got lucky.

That doesn't make what I wrote untrue

Straight up not accurate. At a private company internship, probably paid, a government internship, nope.

Apparently its 70% instantly fatal. You can survive, but the odds that you aren't dead or paralyzed are abysmal.

Its an actual thing but usually for whiplash in car accident victims. Your skull can sever from your spine internally. Its why people get neck collars when paramedics show up to accidents regardless of severity because it doesn't take much force.