The Nation - News from April 16, 1989

A wooden bridge collapsed near Marlow, Tenn., killing a teen-ager in the second bridge accident in Tennessee this month, authorities said. Two passengers in a pickup truck were seriously injured in the collapse that occurred as the truck was trying to cross the bridge, which carried traffic over a railroad track, police said. A 25-foot section of the 15-foot-wide bridge buckled, but authorities could not say whether the truck struck the bridge before the collapse. The victim was identified as Wesley Gallaher, 16. The re-evaluation of the state’s bridge inspection program was ordered after the April 1 collapse of a bridge over the Hatchie River near Memphis that sent eight people plunging to their deaths.