'Khloe's Krossing' and 'Mark Klusman Way' will memorialize pedestrians struck and killed

Khloe Pitts was only 3 years old when she and her mother, then-27-year-old Joy White, were struck by a car while in a crosswalk on Vine Street. They had just left the Cincinnati Zoo's Festival of Lights. The collision -- which police characterized as a hit-and-run -- cut young Khloe's life short. She would shortly later die from her injuries. Now, near the zoo's entrance sits a bench, memorializing the 3-year-old's life. And pretty soon, there will be another fixture headed to the site of the crash, designating the crosswalk where Khloe took her last steps as "Khloe's Krossing." Khloe's death is one of two pedestrian fatalities receiving honorary namings: Mark Klusman, beloved Elder High School teacher killed in the street as a pedestrian, will be honored as well. "She was everything," White said at her daughter's bench's commemoration ceremony last year. "Khloe was amazing. She was such a ball of energy." In an ordinance submitted to his fellow city council members, P.G. Sittenfeld called for the honorary naming of the southern crosswalk at the intersection of Vine Street and Erkenbrecker Avenue -- "as a reminder of the necessity for both drivers and pedestrians to know and observe road and traffic regulations," the ordinance reads.