The crash happened about 5:30 a.m. on westbound Interstate 10 when the bus rear-ended a pickup truck, swerved into the median of the divided highway, then back across the westbound lanes. It crossed the right-hand shoulder, left the road and rolled.

Six people were ejected and killed. Sixteen others were injured and taken to hospitals. Eleven of the injured were taken by ambulance to various hospitals and five were flown by medical helicopter. Among the injured were two 11-year-olds and a 16-year-old, Graves said.

The accident scene became a mass of police and rescue personnel as ambulances arrived and rescuers broke out windows of the bus to get to the victims, who were treated in an area in the middle of the interstate.

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