Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (May 30/05) - The victim of a May 20 traffic accident on Highway 1 at the NWT/Alberta border has been identified as Mary Lou Garlick, 61, of Fort Smith.

Garlick was deputy warden of the Territorial Women's Correctional Centre in Fort Smith.

"She's going to be missed very much in the community," Mayor Peter Martselos says.

The mayor said Garlick was known as a fair person in her role at the correctional centre. "She treated everybody with dignity and respect."

In a May 24 e-mail to department employees, Don Cooper, deputy justice minister, wrote that Garlick's death was a "great loss" to the corrections services. "Mary Lou had spent her professional life helping people, first as a nurse and then as a correctional worker."

Flags at half-mast

Out of respect for Garlick, flags at all correctional centres in the NWT were flown at half-mast.

She was the widow of Robert Garlick, a Fort Smith town councillor at the time of his death in January 2003.

Mary Lou Garlick was the driver of a midsize SUV that collided with a pickup truck towing a camper trailer at about 11:45 a.m. on May 20.

A Yellowknife couple in the pickup were injured. The 55-year-old male driver was medevaced to Edmonton with non-life-threatening injuries, including a foot injury. The 54-year-old female passenger was treated at hospital in Hay River and released.

Cause investigated

The cause of the collision is still being investigated by members of the Hay River RCMP Detachment and "G" Division Traffic Services.