2 DIE, 43 ARRESTED IN HOLIDAY DRIVING.

Byline: James J. Rodriguez Daily News Staff Writer

Two people died on local roads over the long New Year's weekend, and dozens were arrested on suspicion of drunk driving, officials said Friday.

Twenty-year-old Maria Woolfolk of Arleta and a second unidentified victim, a 19-year-old friend from Northridge whose name is being withheld pending notification of relatives, were passengers in a pickup truck driven by a man who investigators believe was drunk, said Officer Wendy Moore, a California Highway Patrol spokeswoman.

The two died at 2:53 a.m. Monday in Agua Dulce when driver Peter Correa, 21, of San Fernando lost control of his truck and slammed into an embankment. The crash was in the southbound lanes of the Antelope Valley Freeway just north of Agua Dulce Canyon Road, Moore said.

Correa initially was taken for treatment to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, but was transferred Tuesday to the jail ward at County/USC Medical Center. Information on his condition could not be obtained late Tuesday.

One person was killed during the New Year's holiday period a year ago - a drunk driver who slammed into a tree and was killed instantly, sheriff's officials said.

Forty-three suspected drunk drivers were arrested on Santa Clarita area freeways from 6 p.m. Friday through midnight Monday, Morey said.

That contrasted with 25 the previous year. The increase was due in part to a CHP "Impaired Drivers Task Force" deployed New Year's Eve, Moore said.

"They were up here doing nothing but looking for DUIs," she added.

A similar operation was conducted on roads last year throughout the Santa Clarita Valley by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Deputies at the Santa Clarita Sheriff's Station reported five DUI arrests over the weekend, down from 14 arrests during the same period in 1994.

One of the weekend arrests included a Newhall man whose vehicle crashed into a sheriff's patrol car, said Deputy Mark Slater, a sheriff's traffic investigator.

The two deputies were outside their patrol car on an unrelated traffic stop, when Troy Rosemark, 30, drove his car into theirs, Slater said.

The crash occurred about 8:30 p.m. Sunday on Soledad Canyon Road just east of Golden Oak Road.

Slater said Rosemark, whose blood-alcohol level was twice the legal 0.08 percent limit, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.

In the Antelope Valley, 24 people were arrested over the long weekend - seven by the Highway Patrol and 17 by sheriff's deputies.

There were 10 arrests over Christmas weekend valley-wide.

Sheriff's officials credited a checkpoint set up to capture drunk drivers for the increase in arrests.