A toll worker is still alive and well today thanks to a 'gut feeling' she had before she was due to go into work.
I'm sure we've all had days where we don't particularly feel like heading in to the office, but it wasn't the normal 'I really can't be bothered today' feeling that struck Jessica Daley last Friday (12 April).
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A toll worker along the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, Daley woke up at around 2am on Friday morning to what now seems to have been a premonition.
“I had just like a really like, bad gut feeling that something was going to happen. Like something terrible was going to happen,” she said in an interview with NBC New York.
At around 4am Daley was again struck with fear, and this time the feeling was much more specific.
“I actually had a feeling that I was going to get in a car accident," she said.
Daley said she 'literally never call[s] out of work', but the feeling was 'so strong' that she couldn't bring herself to get in the car and head to the Barnegat Toll Plaza where she works.
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Just a few hours later, Daley heard that there had been a violent crash involving a garbage truck at the Toll Plaza.
The booth the truck crashed into is 'usually the booth that [Daley is] in', she said.
The crash happened about four hours after Daley had called out, and resulted in debris hitting both a Chevy pickup truck and a toll booth.
A toll collector and the driver of the garbage truck both suffered serious injuries as a result of the accident.
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Knowing her premonition could have potentially saved her life, Daley said she 'dropped to [her] knees and just started crying'.
"I was praying for everybody involved and thanking God that I had that feeling to call out,” she said.
Daley's mom, Jennifer Daley, expressed belief that her daughter's gut instinct was an 'an angel or a premonition from a guardian angel telling her not to go in to protect her'.
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“It's hard to feel so happy that my daughter wasn't there, and at the same time, feel heartbreak for the ones that were involved," Jennifer said.
Daley's experience reinforced her belief in the power of faith, especially after she started getting 'a lot closer to God' in recent months.
"I believe 100% that was God looking out for me,” she said.
Daley went back to work just one day after the crash, which is now under investigation by state police.
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A spokesperson for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority has said the injured toll collector was taken to hospital after the crash, but returned home later that day.
Emily Brown