Family of Journalist, 22, Struck and Killed by Train Are Pushing for Safety Changes: 'We're Doing It for Her'

Mar. 15, 2025

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Gofundme

“It still hasn’t sunk in,” uncle Michael O’Neill toldThe Chicago Sun-Timesof her death.

Grace was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center and her parents and brother were present when she was later pronounced dead due to her injuries.

“My mom and dad burst into tears and screaming while I sat there, stone-faced, thinking, ‘This isn’t real. How is this even possible?’ " her brother Adian toldNBC affiliate WTHR.

“No noise, no nothing,” her father, Phil Bentkowski, told the outlet. “From the video all you hear is a thud. Then the engineer blows a horn,”

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Her uncle told theChicago Sun-Timesthat the family believes “that this would have never happened to Grace if there had been some kind of light or alert that signaled that a train was going to go over the pedestrian crossover.”

Now, they will “keep fighting so that this doesn’t happen to someone else.”

“It’s what Grace would want out of this,” her uncle added. “We’re doing it for her. We’re broken because of this, and we’ll never get over it, but we have to figure out how to live with it.”

“Our deepest condolences have been and continue to be with the family and friends of our rider who lost her life at the Hegewisch Station,” the statement continued. “We firmly believe that the station, as designed in 2006, is safe. We would never operate the railroad with a condition that we believed to be unsafe.”

They did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

“Grace touched many people’s lives at the young age of 22. She was a striving journalist and the hardest worker there is,” her brother wrote in a message. “She managed to make such a big impact at 22 years old, and I wish we could’ve had her here longer.”

“Although we lost such a beautiful and caring soul, she is now with all of us,” her brother added. “Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we go down this road together.”

source: people.com