Back in the ’30s, human cadavers were thrown
down unused elevator shafts onto steel plates.
Steel ball bearings were dropped on their skulls.
In time, the cadavers were strapped into cars
wearing crude accelerometers and subjected to
head-on collisions, vehicle rollovers. Soon
the dummies were asked their opinions
about such things as velocity and blunt force.
There wasn’t much to say at first. One caused
the other. It hurt. But some renegade CTDs
spoke of their plight. The seemingly endless
replay of death. The time they strapped a pig
into the passenger seat. They used words
like integrity, moral code. A few banned photos
with arms raised in defiance. Look Ma, No Hands!
Without these early pioneers, who knows
what pain we’d have been made to endure.
What velocity and force.