Safety Research and Analysis

The U.S. DOT Volpe Center's Safety Research and Analysis Division performs safety analysis, business process redesign, performance and program effectiveness measurement, and communications and outreach to support safety management systems.
Our multidisciplinary team conducts assessments of safety programs and develops methods and models to measure the effectiveness of federal motor carrier safety initiatives, such as carrier compliance reviews, roadside inspections, and commercial motor vehicle traffic enforcement.
We engage stakeholders/users throughout the lifecycle of our programs to listen, continuously improve, pivot when needed, and produce innovative results. Our work is continually informed by data and real-world users to prevent crashes and save more lives. With a deep commitment to our shared safety mission, our team works with our sponsors to develop and redesign safety programs with a goal to transform safety-based decision-making.
Our Capabilities
Safety and Security Assessments
- Analyze safety data to understand root and casual factors that contribute to crashes
- Conduct assessments of safety programs and develop methods and models to measure the effectiveness of safety initiatives
- Provide stakeholder analysis and outreach to improve the quality of safety data collected in the field
- Design and implement education, learning, and training initiatives to improve program effectiveness
Impartial Investigations and Program Evaluations
- Develop program effectiveness models to estimate benefits of safety programs
- Provide objective federal perspective in assessing crashes, data, and research to inform decision-making and provide policy analysis
- Design and implement business process strategies and business process reengineering
Applied Data Science
- Use advanced data, image analysis, and visualization tools to help solve transportation challenges
- Analyze, inspect, cleans, transform, and model data to support policy direction and improve quality of safety data
- Leverage predictive data to improve safety performance and enable evidence-based decision-making and improve safety culture
Systems and Infrastructure Modernization and Optimization
- Improve the safety, health, and efficiency of transportation systems, including the creation, enhancement, and maintenance of IT capabilities
- Deploy human factor research and design to systems and policies to improve transportation safety with due concern for unintended consequences
- Develop information resources leveraging emerging technologies to create knowledge from data
Meet Our Team
View selected staff biographies.
Dianne Gunther
Chief, Safety Program Design and Management
U.S. DOT Volpe Center
220 Binney Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
Email: dianne.gunther@dot.gov
Phone: 617-494-3381
Dianne Gunther has been at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center since 2016, and during that time she has both led and contributed to multidisciplinary teams to design and support the implementation of surface transportation operational safety programs. She currently leads the team supporting the proposed enhancements to FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System, as well as the FMCSA’s Level VIII Inspection Operational Test team, which is testing electronic, in-motion commercial motor vehicle inspections. Prior to her work at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, Gunther worked as a safety specialist for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority and a civil engineer at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Highway Division. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) and a Master of Science in Transportation from MIT (Cambridge, MA).
Annalynn Lacombe
Acting Chief, Safety Research and Analysis
U.S. DOT Volpe Center
220 Binney Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
Email: annalynn.lacombe@dot.gov
Phone: 617-494-2161
Annalynn Lacombe currently leads the FMCSA Motor Carrier Safety Applied Analysis portfolio, a multidisciplinary program comprising data analysis, data science, safety research, technical support, and strategic communications in support of data-driven safety decision-making. She also manages the FMCSA Crash Causal Factors Programs Interagency Agreement, a multiyear Congressionally mandated effort to collect detailed information from a representative sample of commercial vehicle crashes to better understand crash causal factors. Lacombe has been at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center since 1996 and has led efforts including transportation strategic planning, coordinating U.S. DOT participation in the Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council, and assessing transportation challenges for those required to work under the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act.
Becky Markunas
Chief, State Safety Program Support
U.S. DOT Volpe Center
220 Binney Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
Email: rebecca.markunas@dot.gov
Phone: 617-494-2632
Becky Markunas began working at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center in 2010 while completing her PhD in Experimental Psychology from Northeastern University (Boston, MA). Her early work focused on transportation human factors in both aviation and surface transportation. Beginning in 2019, Markunas managed FMCSA’s National Safety Interventions Rollout. More recently, she has been managing FMCSA’s Program and Process Reviews portfolio at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, leveraging a multidisciplinary team to analyze and update the FMCSA’s safety programs and processes as part of the Agency’s continuous improvement effort. Markunas also leads the U.S. DOT Volpe Center’s support of FMCSA’s Entry Level Driver Training (ELDT) program. She sits on the Steering Committee for FMCSA’s National Consumer Complaint Database modernization effort and partners with FMCSA’s Household Goods Division to help decrease moving fraud and improve interstate moves of the American public.
Nancy Kennedy
Principal Technical Advisor for Surface Transportation Safety Management
U.S. DOT Volpe Center
220 Binney Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
Email: nancy.kennedy@dot.gov
Phone: 617-494-3405
Nancy Kennedy serves as part of our team of principal technical advisors who work across the Center to identify emerging transportation technologies, conduct analyses and assessments on topics of national significance, and explore new opportunities in response to evolving national concerns.
Kennedy serves as principal technical advisor for surface transportation safety management.
Read Nancy Kennedy's full bio.