Driver of Car That Killed Girls Is ‘Devastated,’ Police Say : Tragedy: They report he has a clean driving record and are still unclear whether he could see the 9-year-old trick-or-treaters in the wide Fullerton intersection, described as poorly lighted.

Police said Monday that the driver of a car that struck and killed two 9-year-old trick-or-treaters has a clean driving record and is devastated by the accident.

“This whole thing is just a tragedy,” Sgt. Glenn Deveney said.

Both an investigating officer and the principal of a nearby school said the site where the two girls were killed Sunday night is so wide and poorly lighted that they wouldn’t want to cross it themselves.

Police said it was still unclear whether pizza delivery driver James Shomo, 21, was able to see cousins Christina Mach and Alice Lee as they crossed the intersection of Orangethorpe Avenue and Pacific Drive at 7:45 p.m.

The girls were in a crosswalk, police said, but at least one of them was dressed in an all-black witch’s costume and the intersection’s only light is on the other side of the street.

“I don’t know which girl that was, but it is possible both were dressed entirely in black,” Investigator Bill Regan said. “The one witness we have, a 16-year-old cousin who was walking with the girls, is very confused right now, so we’re not sure exactly what happened.”

Families at the Mach home in Fullerton and the Lee home in Buena Park declined comment Monday.

An officer who spoke to Christina’s fourth-grade classmates Monday morning described Shomo as “devastated.” Attempts to reach Shomo on Monday failed.

Department of Motor Vehicle records show that Shomo has a valid driver’s license and an unblemished driving record.

Paul Stallmer, a manager at Larry’s Pizza at Euclid Street and Orangethorpe, about a mile west of the accident site, said Shomo has worked there for only a few weeks.

“He’s a great guy, very clean,” Stallmer said.

At Orangethorpe School, about a block south of the accident site, Christina Mach was remembered by Principal Patrick Backus as a “very nice student and an excellent citizen, the kind everyone really likes.”

Psychologists, counselors and chaplains were at the school Monday to help her classmates deal with their grief, and a fund is being set up to help her family.

Police did not know what school Lee attended.

Backus said there are “a lot of problems” at the intersection where the accident occurred, and several parents complained to him Monday about it. He said only a handful of his students live north of Orangethorpe and they are told to cross at the nearby intersection of Brookhurst Road and Orangethorpe, which has a traffic signal.