NJ toll collector says ‘premonition’ saved her before garbage truck plowed into plaza

🔴 Garbage truck crashes into toll plaza Friday morning

🔴 Toll worker claims a "gut feeling" made her call out

🔴 Skeptics don't believe her

BARNEGAT — A New Jersey woman who works as a toll collector on the Garden State Parkway claims she avoided serious injury thanks to a strong feeling of impending doom.

On most days, Jessica Daley goes to work at the Barnegat Toll Plaza. But Friday morning she called out and stayed home.

Then around 6:15 a.m. Friday, a Mack garbage truck barreled into a toll booth, according to State Police Sgt. Jeffrey Lebron. Daley would have been inside it if she had gone to work.

Flying debris hit a nearby Chevrolet pickup truck, Lebron said. Photos and videos posted on social media and by various media outlets showed the devastating crash.

Toll worker claims "gut feeling" saved her

Daley said to NBC 4 New York that she woke up early Friday morning with a "bad gut feeling that... something terrible was going to happen."

The premonition came a second time and Daley decided to call out for the day.

“I actually had a feeling that I was going to get in a car accident. And it was so strong, that I actually called out and I literally never call out of work,” Daley said to NBC.

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She was right. The garbage truck driver, a 44-year-old Toms River man, and the 43-year-old substitute toll worker from Little Egg Harbor filling in for Daley were both seriously injured, Lebron said. The worker was released from the hospital later Friday, NBC reported.

Skeptics don't believe premonition

Daley said on Facebook that she has received "nasty comments" from skeptics.

Some said that she was responsible for the other toll worker getting hurt. Other commenters said that she was lying for attention and speculated that she called out because she was hungover.

"I was never 'looking for attention' I was truly amazed by what I felt and what ended up happening," said Daley, who also said she was "100% sober."

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