WASHINGTON The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has updated its annual edition of Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts and the trend for buses was encouraging.

However, in a culture obsessed with the here and now, the update is sorely out of step because it adds information for 2009, the most-recent year for which comprehensive, vetted information is available.

The update does not include information resulting from the rash of fatal motorcoach crashes that occurred during the first half of 2011 in the eastern U.S. That information wont show in the crash facts study until 2013.

Still, the report, which contains descriptive statistics about fatal, injury, and property-damage crashes involving large trucks and buses, does present comparative, trend-line information.

For example:

From 1999 to 2009, the number of buses of all types involved in fatal crashes declined from 319 to 221, a drop of 31 percent.

From 2007 to 2009, the number of buses involved in fatal crashes declined from 281 to 221, a drop of 21 percent, and the vehicle-involvement rate for buses in fatal crashes declined by 20 percent.

From 1999 to 2009, on average, intercity buses accounted for 12 percent of all buses involved in fatal crashes. School buses and transit buses accounted for 40 percent and 35 percent, respectively, of all buses involved in fatal crashes.

Large truck and bus fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled by all motor vehicles declined by 20 percent, from 0.153 in 2008 to 0.123 in 2009.

For more information, go to: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/facts-research/LTBCF2009/2009LargeTruckCrashOverview.aspx.