Government failure is being blamed for our rising road toll.

A seventh person, an eight-year-old girl, died in Waikato Hospital early this morning after yesterday's head-on collision near Waverley in South Taranaki.

The sole survivor of the accident, a woman, is stable in ICU at Wellington Hospital.

New Zealand Initiative research fellow Sam Warburton told Mike Hosking the road toll has gone up by 60 percent over the past four years, but travel is only up 15 percent.

"The whole policy has been one of our biggest national tragedies."

LISTEN ABOVE AS SAM WARBURTON SPEAKS TO MIKE HOSKING