DUI FATALITIES RISE IN SANTA CLARITA : NUMBERS SPIKE DESPITE CRACKDOWN LAST YEAR.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Daily News Staff Writer

Fatal traffic accidents on city streets fell by half in 1996. But a closer look at the statistics is troubling to traffic officials who note that three of four fatalities last year involved drunk drivers, while just one of the eight did the previous year.

Also up were drunk driving accidents on area freeways, said Officer Wendy Moore, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol. In 1996, there were 157 alcohol- or drug-related accidents on local freeways, 19 more than in 1995.

On city streets, motorists driving under the influence caused 83 accidents last year, compared to 70 the previous year, records show.

Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's deputies arrested 754 drunk driving suspects last year (including an all-time department record of 103 arrests in December.)

Usually, when there are more DUI arrests, the number of alcohol-related traffic accidents goes down, deputies said.

Traffic Deputy Mark Slater can only figure the once-strong message - Don't Drink And Drive - has become passe.

``Maybe more people are drinking and driving. Maybe the word about drinking and driving is getting old and people think `It won't happen to me,' '' Slater said.

As for the high number of arrests, deputies point to three deputies who are big on DUI cases: George Guevara, who arrested 164 motorists suspected of driving under the influence and received a Century Award for more than 100 arrests in one year; Tony Miano with 103 of the arrests, and Bob Foster with 88 of the DUI arrests.

Fifty of the DUI arrests came as motorists passed by the station's sobriety checkpoint trailer, set up at various times throughout the city, Slater said.

The DUI arrests go beyond statistics for many of the traffic deputies. Real people are affected, they said.

``Every person who gets behind the wheel drunk is an (attempted) murderer. And it's just one sad story after another,'' said Mike Shapiro, another traffic deputy at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's station.

The 1996 alcohol-related accident most vivid in the minds of Shapiro and Slater involved an 18-year-old college-bound man whose life changed after a drunk driver slammed into his vehicle along Sand Canyon Road in August.

According to the deputies, Jeffery Waller was driving home from work at Round Table Pizza in Canyon Country, when a drunk driver, identified as Martin Lopez, slammed into Waller's vehicle.

The passenger in Lopez's car, Jose Loredo, of Canyon Country, was killed.

Waller suffered brain trauma and broke many facial and foot bones - destroying his chances to play volleyball for a college club, his mother, Susan Waller said.

The young man managed to begin college just a month after his accident and is struggling in an architecture program at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

Waller has faced many barriers in college, said Shapiro, who still keeps in touch with the family.

``His mother was saying he's having a hard time making friends,'' Shapiro said.

It would have been different had the accident occurred after he was in school and had established friends, the deputy said. ``Now, he's walking into an environment all messed up.''

The two other fatal accidents involving alcohol involved a motorcyclist from Sylmar, who crashed Oct. 5 into a mountain along Sierra Highway and was found dead about six hours later.

The other case was last January and involved a pedestrian who was driving initially, but then got out of his car and crossed a street near the Saugus Speedway on Soledad Canyon Road, and was hit by another car.