SHORT TAKES : New Kids a Highway Sensation

State and local law officers enlisted the aid of truck drivers to keep a swarm of motoring fans away from buses carrying the popular rock group New Kids on the Block.

The truckers, called in on their citizens’ band radios, formed a slow moving blockade on I-40 behind buses carrying the singers from a Thursday-night concert in Nashville to an appearance tonight in Knoxville.

Police said that as many as 85 cars carrying fans had begun following the buses, often pulling their vehicles perilously close.

“The bus drivers were having a little trouble with fans darting in and out in front of them trying to get a look inside the buses,” said Roane County Sheriff’s Deputy Dowell Isham.

“They weren’t trying to wreck the buses or anything. They were just trying to get a glimpse inside.”