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Sister From Dominican Order, 81, Cited After Crashing Car Into Franklin Lakes House

UPDATE: An 81-year-old member of the Dominican Sisters who was behind the wheel of a ministry-owned car that ripped a hole in the side of a Franklin Lakes home on Christmas morning received a careless driving summons, authorities said.

The car ripped through an attached garage.

The car ripped through an attached garage.

Photo Credit: COURTESY: Franklin Lakes Volunteer Fire Dept.

Sister Margaret McPartland of Rockland County mistakenly put the car into reverse instead of drive, sending it careening across Pueblo Drive, over a lawn and through an attached garage of the single-family house, borough police Capt. John Bakelaar said.

Although not seriously injured, Sister McPartland was hospitalized as a precaution, responders said.

"Crews first used mechanical shoring, utilizing our Super X Struts from Res-Q-Jack, to temporarily shore [the damaged corner of the building] so crews could safely work in the damaged area, followed by wood shoring which remained in place," the Franklin Lakes Volunteer Fire Department said.

The Dominican Sisters of Sparkhill are a female Catholic religious congregation that owns and operates two secondary schools -- including Albertus Magnus High School on Route 304 in Bardonia -- and participates in a variety of ministries both locally and across the world.

The congregation is part of the worldwide Order of Preachers, founded by the Spanish priest Dominic of Caleruega in France in the early 13th century.

McPartland has been with the Dominican Sisters for more than a half-century.

Her sister, fellow Dominican Sister Theresa Mary McPartland, died at Montefiore Nyack Hospital on Dec. 19. She was 84.

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