Grace Bentkowski, NewsNation journalist killed in freak train accident as her family now demand answers as to what led to rising reporter being killed by train departing station.
The family of a rising news journalist for cable outlet, NewsNation are demanding answers after their 22 year old daughter was fatally run over by a train in Chicago.
Grace Bentkowski, 22 — a newly-hired creative producer for the cable news network — was crossing ground-level tracks with a group of other commuters at Hegewisch South Shore station on July 25, when a train leaving the platform plowed into her, according to WGN 9.
‘It’s the worst nightmare ever,’ her father, Phil Bentkowski, told the outlet. ‘[There was] no noise, no nothing. From the video all you hear is a thud. Then the engineer blows a horn.’
In order to reach a parking lot at the station, riders must walk over the tracks — but the train failed to sound its whistle as the young journalist walked toward the lot, her father said after reviewing footage of the accident.
His daughter’s view also appeared to be obstructed by a large concrete pillar, the parent said.
Bentkowski, a recent Ball State University graduate, had just left work and planned to do some shopping before heading to her home in Dyer, Indiana when tragedy struck.
Phil Bentkowski said he was alerted by cops that his daughter had been taken into emergency surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
After hours of waiting, Bentkowski’s parents and her younger brother were told she had died.
‘My initial thought was, ‘That’s not possible.’ I was under the assumption that if you were hit by a train leaving the station, obviously it wouldn’t be that fast and worst case was maybe a broken leg,’ Phil Bentkowski said.
According to investigators, the impact of being struck by the departing train, ‘threw her 50 feet’ and caused internal injuries.
Bentkowski was not wearing headphones and was not on her phone when the train plowed into her, the father added.
‘Her phone wasn’t damaged, she wasn’t on it and had her AirPods in her purse,’ the dad said. ‘The only thing in her hand was her car keys.’
The Bentkowski family is now seeking to improve the potentially dangerous conditions at the station.
‘It’s such a safety issue, this is 2024,’ Phil Bentkowski said. ‘I don’t understand why there aren’t ‘stop, look, listen’ safety signs — it makes no sense.’
The NewsNation worker first began as an intern for the news outlet, covering Indiana’s local elections last year, according to her Instagram account. She was hired as an associate creative producer after she graduated from college roughly four months ago.
‘I’m incredibly happy,’ she wrote in a post announcing she’d been hired in May.
As of Wednesday, a Gofundme page for Bentkowski’s cremation and other expenses had raised over $27K.
‘Grace Bentkowski was a rising star at NewsNation,‘ the network told the nypost in a statement.
‘Her passion for journalism and eagerness to learn the ropes was infectious and her willingness to jump in and learn the TV news business was inspiring to her colleagues. Grace was one of those rare people who brought light into any room in which she entered.’
‘We are heartbroken for her loved ones and family, and she will never be far from our hearts,’ the network said.
The South Shore train line said it now plans to add interim warning signs at the station and is ‘reaching out to an engineering firm to determine what it will take to add active warning to the pedestrian crossings.’
Authorities continue to investigate what caused the train accident that killed the rising media star.
