A road safety advocate says it's time the government stepped up and did more to prevent head-on collisions on our highways.

Police have confirmed two 16-year-old boys were the victims of an early morning smash on State Highway One, north of Christchurch.

One of the cars was on the wrong side of the road when the crash happened, about 3km outside Amberley.

Another 16-year-old has been injured.

A witness at the scene says a ute and a white sports car had collided, and there was also a lorry pulled over at the side of the road.

Editor of car review website Dog and Lemon Clive Matthew-Wilson says increasing the driving age could help, but thinks that will only go so far.

He says in these cases quite often the young drivers don't have licences anyway, so you're asking for trouble if you're hoping for teenagers to think about their actions.

Mr Matthew-Wilson says there is no question that many in their mid-teens are not capable of operating a car safely and that we need to tighten up the issue of licences.

Little progress has been had, he says, on installing median barriers on our highways - something he has been campaigning heavily for.

The crash brings the road toll for March to 21.

So far this year 86 people have been killed on the roads, compared with 74 this time last year.