IN: Pedestrian safety improvements planned for Hegewisch commuter rail station

The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District plans to add gates, flashing lights and bells at pedestrian crossings at the Hegewisch Station in Illinois to serve as added safeguards after a 2024 accident caused the death of a 22-year-old Dyer resident who crossed the tracks in front of an oncoming train.

Family and friends of Grace Bentkowski, who died in the accident two years ago, called for safety upgrades after her death.

Since then, NICTD, operator of the South Shore Line commuter railroad, performed a diagnostic study with the Illinois Commerce Commission and Federal Railroad Administration that arrived at a recommendation to install the active warning devices.

NICTD said the current pedestrian crossings meet safety standards, but has included in its recently approved five-year capital program a project, estimated at a cost of $2.75 million, to do the safety upgrades.

The project involves a variety of complications to meet federal railroad regulations, American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association guidelines and other requirements, NICTD said. As a first step, it will hire an engineering firm to plan the project to add the safety infrastructure and to reconfigure the railroad signal and positive train control systems to be able to connect the active warning devices to the railroad.

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