This is a follow on question from Physics SE Question "Can a Skydiver Land On a Large Slide and Survive?".
User Steeven gives this answer here.
User Dargscisyhp asks:
What is it exactly that kills you. I've never understood this. Is the maximum amount of force in this kind of impact?
So what is it that injures someone in an impact such as that at the bottom of a fall? Is it maximum force, acceleration, or what?
Answer
A Community Wiki Answer to capture another User James Large's most excellent summary made in the comment:
Two key words to take away from the answers below are stress and strain. Good words to search for if you want to learn more. And remember, "It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden internal strain at the end."
This is an excellent way of putting it, and of summarizing my answer. Particularly the focus on strain. Fundamentally, we test for a kinematical consideration: if every point undergoes the same motion, no matter what the jerk, acceleration or whatever, no strain can ever result because the set of points making up the body undergoes an isometry.
Sharp deviations from this condition lead to large strains within the body, and these are calculated as sketched in my non Wiki Answer.
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