"OK, I’ll say it. He’s a dickhead,’’ Mr Pallas told Radio 3AW. However he drew the line at calling Webber the same. "I think what Mark Webber has done has been totally irresponsible, but he didn’t display the behaviour that Lewis Hamilton did, and that put people lives at risk,’’ Mr Pallas said. Yesterday, Webber - from Queanbeyan, where a family was wiped out by a speeding car thief last week, said "ridiculous’’ road rules were creating a nanny state and driving in Australia ‘‘pisses me off’’. Today, Deputy Commissioner Lay said some of Webber’s fans were alive because of Victoria’s aggressive approach to road safety.

‘‘We’ve got probably one of the best road safety track records in the world, so I make no apology for our aggressive approach,’’ he told radio station 3AW. ‘‘I think there’s probably a few Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber fans alive today because of our ‘nanny state’ approach ... I think Mark needs to take a bit of responsibility for the road safety message.’’ He said many young drivers looked up to Webber and Hamilton and they should use that influence to spread the road safety message. I think we've got to read an instruction book when we get out of bed - what we can do and what we can't do ‘‘I’d much prefer Mark to be talking about keeping the speeding and the hooning on the race track and being a bit sensible on our roads,’’ he said.

Webber said that, after his return from Europe he had been ''dodging the ridiculous speeding and parking [rules] and all the nanny-state country that we have down here in Australia''. The Red Bull driver said Britain's formula one hope Lewis Hamilton had found out very quickly about what you can and cannot do on the roads in Victoria. Hamilton had his Mercedes impounded on Friday night after being caught by police doing burnouts in St Kilda. ''It's a great country, but we've got to be responsible for our actions and it's certainly a bloody nanny state when it comes to what we can do,'' Webber said before yesterday's race. While the Australian was criticising the state's road laws, Hamilton was apologising for his behaviour.

The police and the government were making no apologies for what appears to be a losing fight to keep the road toll down. Transport Accident Commission Minister Tim Holding said: ''I don't think anyone who has lost a loved one because of road trauma would think that Victoria's anti-hoon laws are too harsh.'' Victoria's top traffic policeman, Deputy Commissioner Ken Lay, said the state was determined to crack down on hoon driving.

''We have one of the safest road systems in the world and target aggressive driving and we make no apology for that,'' he said. Premier John Brumby said the state had road rules for good reason, to ensure public safety and protect lives.

But Webber felt Australians increasingly were being tied up by rules. ''I think we've got to read an instruction book when we get out of bed - what we can do and what we can't do … put a yellow vest on and all that sort of stuff,'' he said.

Victoria's road toll stands at 78, compared with 67 for the same time last year. ''Every day we're getting a fatal,'' Mr Lay said, while warning that police would blitz roads in the lead-up to and over the Easter break. He hoped to keep the annual road toll to under 300 but it was a tough task. ''We are now on track for our worst road toll for more than five years,'' he said. Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said that the new viral ad campaign was at odds with the government’s ‘‘respect’’ agenda.

‘‘It makes an absolute mockery of John Brumby’s ‘respect’ agenda. It’s hard enough now with teachers to get the message through to students.’’ ‘‘If this is the message being sent by John Brumby’s government - that it is OK to use that sort of language - how can a schoolteacher possibly argue it’s not appropriate to use it in the classroom?’’ Loading ‘‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything more appalling in my time as a member of Parliament, knowing what parents are trying to deal with on a day-to-day basis — trying to send positive messages to school children - and then the government sends out an appalling message like that. Boy, have they got it wrong.’’ with Clay Lucas