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SACATON, Arizona (AP) - Federal transportation officials say a company whose bus was involved in an accident outside Phoenix early Friday that left six people dead and 16 others injured was operating illegally.

The Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says its investigators were at Tierra Santa Inc. and conducting an onsite compliance review of the company's safety operations.

The bus was traveling from the central Mexican state of Zacatecas to Los Angeles with 22 passengers when authorities say it hit a pickup and rolled over on the interstate 25 miles south of downtown Phoenix. Authorities say six people were ejected from a bus and killed.

Federal authorities say Tierra Santa was "not authorized to engage in the interstate transportation of passengers by commercial motor vehicle" and its application to do so was denied in December.

The bus, traveling from the central Mexican state of Zacatecas to Los Angeles, had entered the United States at El Paso, Texas, and was traveling westbound on I-10.

DPS has reopened 1 lane of Westbound I-10. But travelers should still expect very slow going in that area.