Grace Bentkowski's family urges change after fatal train crash

Family members of Grace Bentkowski are remembering the 22-year-old journalist – and pushing for increased safety standards at a Chicago-area train station after she was struck and killed by a train last month.

“I don't understand it yet,” said Uncle Michael O'Neill The Chicago Sun-Times of her death.

Grace, who just started working as a creative producer at NewsNation in May, was commuting from downtown Chicago to her home in Dyer, Indiana, on Thursday, July 25, the newspaper and WGN-TV reported.

After getting off a train at the Hegewisch South Shore station, she followed other passengers across the tracks to the parking lot, where she was struck and killed by another train.

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

“My mom and dad were crying and screaming, while I sat there with a stony face thinking, 'This isn't real. How is this even possible?'” her brother Adian told NBC affiliate WTHR.

According to WGN-TV, her family said they could not hear the train's horn on footage of the incident.

“No noise, nothing,” her father, Phil Bentkowski, told the outlet. “On the video, you just hear a thud. Then the engineer blows a horn.”

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Before his daughter's death, Grace's father said he “assumed that if you were hit by a speeding train” the “worst thing that could happen would be a broken leg.”

Her uncle told the Chicago Sun-Times The family is convinced “that if there had been some kind of light or alarm signaling that a train was about to cross the pedestrian crossing, this would never have happened to Grace.”

Now they would “keep fighting so that this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

“This is what Grace would have hoped for,” her uncle added. “We're doing it for her. We're devastated by this and we'll never get over it, but we have to figure out how to live with it.”

A representative of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, which operates the South Shore Line, told WGN-TV in a statement that “safety is our top priority in everything we do.”

“Our deepest sympathy goes out to the family and friends of our passenger who lost her life at Hegewisch station,” the statement continued. “We firmly believe that the station, as it was designed in 2006, is safe. We would never operate the railway in a condition that we consider unsafe.”

“However, one accident is too many,” the statement continued. “After every accident, we evaluate whether safety can be further improved, and this situation is no different. We are reaching out to an engineering firm to determine what it would take to add active warning signals to the pedestrian crossings. In the meantime, we are installing warning signs, and although it is not required by law, the South Shore Line will install a train whistle that will sound when trains approach the crossings.”

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

A GoFundMe campaign organized by Grace's brother has now raised over $29,000 and serves as a way for the family to honor the young journalist's “life and legacy.”

“Grace touched many lives at the young age of 22. She was an aspiring journalist and the hardest worker there is,” her brother wrote in a message. “She managed to make such a difference at 22 and I wish we could have had her here longer.”

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