A retired magistrate told a court he did not see any roadworks warning signs on the stretch of road where four Sussex tourists were killed.

Martyn Hebblethwaite, 22, from Slinfold, his brother Benjamin, 26, from Horsham, Peter Standing, 21, from Hove, and Tim Skipp, 23, from Horsham, were killed when the vehicle they were travelling in was hit from behind by a lorry driven by Scott Anthony Pitkin.

The quartet were travelling north along the Bruce Highway, near Feluga, north of Tully, Queensland, Australia, just after midnight on May 25, 1999.

Pitkin, 27, of Townsville, denies the dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death.

Today Albert Nolan, 70, of Innisfail, told the Supreme Court in Townsville he had to slam on his brakes to avoid running into the back of a van stopped at a set of temporary traffic lights.

Mr Nolan was driving north along what he called the Tully straight just after 10pm.

Less than two hours after he drove through the roadworks, Pitkin ploughed his semi-trailer into a white estate car occupied by the four British tourists.

Yesterday, the court heard Pitkin say in a recorded police interview that he did not not see roadworks warning signs in the lead-up to the traffic lights where the tourists' vehicle was stopped or moving slowly.

Mr Nolan said there were no roadworks warning signs leading up to the lights and he recalled seeing only an 80km/h and a 60km/h speed limit signs.

He said the two signs were placed close to one another and there was "a matter of seconds,'' travelling within the speed limits, between them.

He said a stationary panel van with its lights turned off obscured his view of the traffic lights.

He braked suddenly, stopping about one metre from the van, the court heard.

Prosecutor Peter Smid put to Mr Nolan that his impressions of the road signage leading up to the traffic lights was "totally and utterly wrong''.

Mr Nolan said: "There were no such signs. That's what I was incensed about and rang the Tully Police station the next day.''

Pitkin's trial is due to finish tomorrow.