Winch-Outs on I-95 in Providence: What a Snowstorm Recovery Involves

A highway winch-out is what happens when a car has slid off the traveled lanes of I-95 into a median, embankment, or snowbank and can no longer drive back onto pavement under its own power — a cable and anchor point pull the car back to level ground before it's hooked up for a normal tow.

What makes a snowstorm highway call different from an ordinary tow?

A highway winch-out is what happens when a car has left the traveled lanes of I-95 — off into the median, up an embankment, or buried nose-first in a snowbank on the shoulder — and can't drive itself back onto pavement. It's not a straightforward hookup: before the car can be towed anywhere, it has to be pulled, usually with a cable run out from the truck's winch to an anchor point on the frame or a tow hook, back down to level, solid ground. Only once it's sitting square on the roadway does it get chained or loaded like a normal tow.

Why does a car end up off the road in the first place?

Most of it comes down to what's under the tires that a driver can't see until it's too late — black ice on a bridge deck, or a breakdown lane that's been narrowed or erased entirely by drifting snow. Sometimes it's less dramatic than that: a plowed ridge along the shoulder looks solid but is actually loose snow with nothing underneath it, and a driver correcting for a slide on packed snow can overcorrect straight into it. None of this requires going fast; a lot of these calls happen at ordinary highway speed in conditions where ordinary speed is already too much traction to ask for.

What's actually dangerous about doing this roadside, on a highway, in a storm?

Working a winch-out means standing on or near the shoulder of a highway with traffic still moving a few feet away, in conditions with worse visibility and worse stopping distances than a clear day — for every driver on that road, not just the one who's stuck. Some drivers move over or slow down; plenty don't, whether from not seeing the truck's lights in time or just not leaving themselves room to react. That risk is why the truck gets positioned to block the work area before anyone gets out, and why a driver waiting for the tow is safer staying belted inside the car, off the traffic side, than standing outside near the guardrail watching.

What should you do while you're waiting?

Stay in the car with your seatbelt on unless the position of the vehicle makes that unsafe — a car off the road but upright and stable is a safer place to sit than the shoulder of I-95 in a storm. Keep hazards on, and if you have to get out, get out on the side away from traffic and stand well clear of the guardrail, not behind the car. Running the engine periodically for heat is fine as long as the tailpipe isn't packed with snow; a blocked exhaust with the engine running is a real carbon monoxide risk, and it happens more than people expect after a car's been sitting nose-down in a snowbank.

Does a storm mean a longer wait than usual?

Usually, yes, and it's worth knowing that going in rather than being surprised by it. A storm doesn't produce one stuck car, it produces dozens across the same stretch of road at the same time, so a truck that would reach a clear-day call in a normal window is working through a queue instead. That's not a reason to skip calling — it's a reason to call (401) 249-4432 as soon as it's safe to do so, since the queue only gets longer while you wait, and to expect an honest sense of where you land in it rather than a number pulled out of thin air. Posted hours run into the evening every day of the week, until 11:30 PM on Fridays, but a storm doesn't run on a posted schedule — if you're stuck outside those hours, calling still gets you a straight answer about what's available.

Is every off-road slide a winch-out, or is it sometimes simpler?

Not every storm call needs a winch. A car that's slid a few feet onto the shoulder but is still sitting level and roughly parallel to the road can sometimes just be pulled forward or backward onto the lane under its own power with a spotter guiding it, or towed conventionally without the cable-and-anchor process at all. The winch comes into play specifically when the car is at an angle, nose-down, up on a berm, or far enough off the shoulder that driving it back on its own would risk getting stuck worse or damaging the underside on whatever it's resting on.

What happens after the car is back on level ground?

Getting the car back onto pavement doesn't mean it's fine to drive away. A vehicle that's been through a slide into a median or embankment gets a quick look for anything that would make continuing to drive it unsafe — a tire that's been cut or debeaded, a wheel that's been bent against a curb or rock under the snow, or fluid pooling underneath that wasn't there before. If nothing's obviously wrong, it's usually driven or towed onward from there; if something is, that's the same call as any other roadside damage — flatbed to a shop, not a drive to find out.