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SUV with girl, 11, at wheel smashes residences

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From Times staff and wire services

An 11-year-old girl sitting on her father’s lap plowed his sport utility vehicle into a Pasadena duplex Thursday evening, leaving the building in danger of collapse, authorities said.

The girl was holding the steering wheel, then hit the accelerator and sent the vehicle into the duplex in the 100 block of Painter Street just after 8 p.m.

The girl’s father, 29-year-old George Lopez -- not the actor of the same name -- was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment, said Lisa Derderian, a spokeswoman for the Pasadena Fire Department.

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No one was injured. Three adults and a child were in the residence but were upstairs at the time, Derderian said. They, along with four children and an adult from the other residence in the duplex, could not return to their homes, which were red-tagged because the second floor was in danger of collapse.

The Pasadena Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue Team was trying to shore up the building, she said.

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