On May 5, 2017 Billy-Joh Watts's father warned him again about the dangers of working long hours as a truck driver while fatigued.
The following day the 36-year-old died when a steel pipe crushed him while his truck was unloaded at Chinchilla, northwest of Brisbane.
It was only about three days earlier Mr Watts spoke to his father of the death of a co-worker at Neil Mansell Group and although he claimed to be OK, it seemed to "knock him around a bit", Keith Watts told a Coroners Court on Tuesday.
Keith Watts, who worked as a truck driver for decades, told the inquest into his son's death the pair had discussed working too hard and for long hours.
Mr Watts told his father and brother Joe, also a truck driver, of working more than 20 days in a row.
During their conversation the night before the fatal incident, Keith Watts spoke to his son about working too hard and being careful because the transport industry is dangerous.
"He did tell me that sometimes he'd get called in to do extra days when they were short-handed or whatever and Billy-Joh was the sort of person that would ... help out any way he could," Keith Watts said.
On his father's advice Mr Watts kept a diary to document what he did each day and the hours he worked.
Keith and Joe Watts knew of the diary's existence - although not of what was in it - but it is one of Mr Watts' belongings that has never been found, they told the court sitting in Brisbane.
Joe Watts said it was obvious during one conversation his brother was not coping well with working many days without a break.
"In the transport industry often if you turn down work ... you would ... get overlooked for further work," Joe Watts added.
Mr Watts, who had been driving trucks for about two years at the time of his death, had given a front-end loader operator a thumb's up to lift one of 25 pipes on the truck, the inquest was told.
But the operator had lost sight of Mr Watts when one metal tube rolled over the side of the trailer crushing the driver in an exclusion zone.
A co-worker later told family members that witch's hats to demarcate the exclusion zones were put in place after the incident although that was contrary to what he earlier told investigators, the inquest was told.
"He told me ... they were under threat of getting the sack if they spoke up about the incident," Keith Watts said.
The inquest was told Mr Watts was profoundly deaf in his left ear since at school, which could have been an impediment to his work in the trucking industry.
Former Workplace Health and Safety Queensland investigator Nicholas Finn told the inquest he had concerns over the appropriateness of the front end loader used to unload the pipes.
Mr Finn said measures in place to deal with the hazards involved in unloading the pipes were deficient.
"An effective exclusion zone had not established by the mere use of two witch's hats," he added.
Mr Finn said standards and guidelines are already available to prevent a similar death.
He said he had concerns around Mr Watts' overall level of fatigue, his partial deafness and the recent death of his colleague.
The investigator was unable to determine what impact fatigue may have had in the incident.
Mr Finn recommended proceedings for a breach of duty be started against Neil Mansell Transport, but no further action was taken against the company.
Coroner Donald MacKenzie will consider the fatigue and mental health management by Neil Mansell Group, measures in place for unloading the steel pipes and recommendations to prevent deaths in similar circumstances.
