A key witness has told a coronial inquest into an explosion at a cafe in Far North Queensland that she saw the driver of a utility smile and nod moments before he lost control and crashed into the building.
Brian Scutt, then 60, was behind the wheel of his four-wheel drive when he suffered a seizure and crashed into two gas bottles at the back of the Serves You Right Cafe at Ravenshoe, west of Cairns, in June 2015.
The crash caused a massive fireball to rip through the busy cafe, killing mother of two Nicole Nyholt, 37, and Margaret Clark, 82.
More than a dozen other people were injured, many of them badly burnt, with horrified onlookers turning the main street into a makeshift hospital, pouring water over their burns and binding their wounds in plastic wrap until medical help arrived.
A seven-day inquest began on Thursday at Atherton, about a 30-minute drive from the scene of the explosion.
It will move to Cairns next week.
The inquest is examining a range of factors, including whether Mr Scutt was fit to hold a driver's licence and whether medical practitioners should be required by law to report to Queensland Transport if they believe a patient is unfit to drive.
Both Mr Scutt and his GP, Kenneth Connolly, were due to give evidence at the inquest, but both men died in the past year.
Witness and teacher Ingrid Mowbray told the inquest she passed Mr Scutt while driving in Ravenshoe a short time before the crash.
"He was happy as I passed him, he smiled and nodded his head in greeting and then he was gone," Ms Pengelly said.
"I arrived at the school where I was teaching and I heard a big bang.
"At first I thought it was from the gun club and ignored it, but then my students said look out the window and there was smoke."
Another witness, Ravenshoe resident Cassandra Pengelly, told the court a different story.
She said she also drove past Mr Scutt, whom she "knew enough to wave to" shortly before the crash.
"His head was down and he had a strange look," Ms Pengelly said.
"I felt like he was looking at me, but he sort of wasn't.
"I just thought he mustn't have been talking to me."
Witness Veronica Featherstone — Mr Scutt's friend of 20 years — told the court she was unaware of Mr Scutt's medical condition.
She said he accidentally called her twice on the morning of the crash instead of his wife.
"He sounded sick on the phone … he was flustered," Ms Featherstone said.
Outside court, she told the ABC Mr Scutt was a "true bushy" who loved mustering cattle and his dogs.
"He wouldn't hurt a fly, he didn't mean for any of this to happen," she said.
"The accident killed him really, he went down very quickly after that."
The inquest continues in Atherton on Friday.
