GONE TOO SOON

22-Year-Old NewsNation Journalist Fatally Struck by Train

A 22-year-old producer for the fledgling network was killed in a strange train accident on her commute home.

A 22-year-old NewsNation reporter in Chicago was killed last month after she was struck by an oncoming commuter train, her parents told local news outlets. Grace Bentkowski, a creative producer for the Chicago-based network, got off her South Shore Line train home at the Hegewisch Station on July 25, WGN-9 reported. Bentkowski exited her train and began walking to the station’s parking lot—which is located on the other side of a pedestrian track crossing. Bentkowski’s family said they reviewed security footage from the train station and were shocked that the train operator failed to sound a warning before it struck his daughter. “No noise, no nothing,” her father Phil Bentkowski told the local station. “From the video all you hear is a thud. Then the engineer blows a horn.” The grieving father said Bentkowski was not on her phone, and her airpods were stored in her purse at the time of the accident. Bentkowski was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center, but was pronounced dead after surgery. The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, which operates the train line, said it was installing warning signage and requiring all trains to sound a warning whistle when they approach crossings. But Bentkowski’s family is still searching for answers—and told the Chicago Sun-Times that the South Shore Line hired lawyers to investigate the deadly accident.