Need a tow? Towing in Westport, MA

Westport runs along the Rhode Island line west of Dartmouth, and its center is about 11 miles from New Bedford's by road. The route that figure follows is Old Westport Road through Dartmouth; for the north end of town and the beach, our trucks usually take I-195 west instead.

Exit 16 is the one we use: it serves Route 88 and US 6. Exit 15, at Sanford Road, is an eastbound-only exit, so a truck coming from New Bedford cannot get off there and reaches North Westport by exit 16 or by US 6.

Westport is spread out - 16,339 people at the 2020 Census on 50.0 square miles of land, mostly homes and farms, with villages at North Westport, Head of Westport, Central Village and Westport Point. Tell us the village and the road, and we will work the drive into the timing we give you.

Distance from New Bedford

About 11 miles by road

I-195 exits in Westport

16 for Route 88 and US 6; 15 at Sanford Road, eastbound only

Town police

Westport Police Department, 56 Hix Bridge Road, (508) 636-1122

State Police on I-195

Dartmouth barracks, which patrols Westport, (508) 993-8373

Beach tow zones

East Beach Road west of John Reed Road; Bridge Road and Cherry & Webb Lane, both sides

Route 88 is the spine of the town and the road to the beach: 11.3 miles, all inside Westport, from I-195 at exit 16 down to John Reed Road at Horseneck Beach State Reservation. No other state highway in Massachusetts runs that far within one town. It is a two-lane road that crosses the Westport River on the Normand Edward Fontaine Bridge, with town roads meeting it at grade, so a car that cannot get onto the shoulder holds up the only lane going its way.

The reservation covers 815 acres with two miles of barrier beach and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year to large lots behind toll gates. The state charges for parking from late May to mid-October, and the campground behind the dunes at Gooseberry Neck opens in the first week of May and runs to Columbus Day.

Those months bring the beach calls: a battery that went flat over a long day, a car that runs dry on the drive back up Route 88 - fuel or a jump in the beach lot settles most of them - and a wheel sunk in sand at the edge of a lot, which needs a winch-out from beach sand before anything else.

Route 177, American Legion Highway, comes in from Tiverton through Fall River, crosses Route 88 at a diamond interchange and merges into US 6 in Westport. US 6 crosses the north end of town near the interstate, on its way east to Dartmouth.

One corner needs a note of its own. Acoaxet, also called Westport Harbor, is cut off from the rest of Massachusetts by the west branch of the Westport River, and the only way in by land is through Adamsville, Rhode Island. A call there crosses the state line twice, so say Acoaxet when you call.

The Westport Police Department is at 56 Hix Bridge Road, with a non-emergency line at (508) 636-1122. On I-195, the State Police Dartmouth barracks, whose patrol area includes Westport, handles the interstate.

Near the beach, the town posts tow zones. Cars are removed from East Beach Road between John Reed Road and West Beach Road, and from both sides of Bridge Road south to the state reservation and of Cherry & Webb Lane. In Westport Harbor, both sides of Beach Avenue off River Road, and of Atlantic Avenue from River Road to Howland Road, are tow zones. Other stretches are ticket-only: the west side of Horseneck Road from First Street to East Beach Road, both sides of John Reed Road from the bridge to East Beach Road, and West Beach Road out to the Gooseberry Island causeway.

• Towed from a tow zone or a town road. Call the Westport Police at (508) 636-1122 and ask who removed the car and where it is now.
• Towed from private property. Before any trespass tow, M.G.L. c.266 §120D makes the property's controller notify the police chief with the addresses, the plate number and the name of the tow company, so the same call to the Westport Police finds it.
• Towed from I-195. A trooper's tow goes to a State Police contracted company; with no business card in hand, call the Dartmouth barracks at (508) 993-8373, as the State Police advise.

In winter, the Highway Department's snow policy asks residents to keep cars off the roadway during all plowing operations, and the town's plows start on major roads after roughly 2 to 3 inches of snow. A car that ends up in a plow ridge is a recovery for us before it is a tow.

The state caps what a police-ordered or private-property tow can cost, under 220 CMR 272. When you are the one calling there is no cap, so the number comes from us, in full, before a truck is sent; what a Westport tow costs and why walks through its parts.

A car in sand is not dragged out on a hook; it is winched onto firm ground first and loaded after. Anything all-wheel drive or electric then gets a flatbed for the ride back from the beach, while a front-wheel-drive sedan that simply died on a paved road in Central Village can go on a wheel-lift.

• Where it is. The road and nearest cross street, the beach lot and how far into it, or Route 88 and the direction.
• What it is sitting on. Pavement, sand, grass or a soft shoulder.
• What it is. Make and model, and its drivetrain - all-wheel drive, hybrid or electric.
• Where it goes. A shop in Westport or Dartmouth, back to New Bedford, or home.

We are light-duty. A farm truck with a load on, a tractor or a heavy trailer is beyond what our trucks are rated for, and we tell you on the call so the right equipment comes the first time.

Dartmouth lies between Westport and New Bedford, and every run out here passes through it; our Dartmouth towing page covers I-195 exits 19 and 22 and State Road. Fall River borders Westport on the northwest, and we cover it too. All of it is worked by our tow trucks out of New Bedford.