As Vermont’s designated Smugglers’ Notch stuck-truck problem-solver, Todd Sears has learned a lot about the intrepid souls who ignore the many warning signs and steer their tractor-trailers into the rocky shoals of the famously winding road. The truck drivers — who are interviewed after their vehicles have been towed ignominiously from the Notch and they’ve been fined heavily — are likely to say they trusted the GPS more than the state’s signs that warned trucks wouldn’t fit. “I suspect ego is a part of it, and efficacy is a part of it: They just want to get there fast, and get their day done,” said Sears, the deputy bureau chief for operations and safety at VTrans, the Vermont Agency of Transportation. He is trying to lower the number of stuck trucks, now at about five a season, to zero. While some have attributed the misguided passage to language problems, Sears said almost all the drivers who’ve been interviewed speak English. They just trust their GPS more than they do the many warning signs they pass, starting miles from the Notch on Route 15 and Interstate 89. “We know what the GPS is telling you to do, and we know you don’t believe the signs,” Sears said. “I’m sympathetic to the GPS thing, but read our signs.” Sears knows he can’t change the drivers, who tend to be from out of state and unfamiliar with the road. But he’s working on changing the conditions that draw trucks to the Notch, a beloved steep, winding and scenic mountain pass that includes a heavily visited state park. Lined by 1,000-foot cliffs, the road closes seasonally each winter. To that end, several groups that are working together to prevent Notch “stuckages,” as some call them, are holding a public hearing on Wednesday, November 2, in Hyde Park so Vermonters can air their own thoughts about keeping trucks out of the Notch. Plenty of people have already gotten in touch with Sears to share their ideas, such as dynamiting the huge boulders that force the road to curve. “Very practical-minded people have suggested that,” Sears said. “That is not in play. It’s beautiful up there.” The meeting is part of a process than began in July 2021, when VTrans and its partners, including the Lamoille Valley Planning Commission, started researching solutions. The mission is to release a report with solutions in March. The ideas at play include the…