Seconds before a collision in which two men died, their car was seen going "like a bat out of hell”, an inquest heard.
Shortly after being overtaken by the Ford Focus, delivery driver Alan Breen came across the collision scene on the A547 between Old Colwyn and Llanddulas.
The Focus had collided head-on with an oncoming van and driver Daniel Deegan, 26, was certified dead at the scene with head and neck injuries.
His front-seat passenger, Martin Kelly, 41, of Pentregwyddel Road, Llysfaen , suffered chest and abdominal injuries and died three hours later at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.
At the inquest in Ruthin , it was revealed that Mr Deegan, a father of four, of Banksbarn, Skelmersdale, Lancashire, had not passed his test, but the car was not displaying L-plates.
But collision investigator Gordon Saynor told the hearing: “That doesn’t necessarily mean his standard of driving was any less but he had not submitted himself to a test.”
Witness Ashley Holden said he was driving from Llanddulas with his mother on the evening of December 20, 2017.
He was behind a van when he saw headlights coming towards them. The oncoming vehicle – the Focus – then came sideways across the road into their lane and smashed into the front of the van.
Van driver Jamie Walker, who was not seriously injured, told them: “I’m lucky to be alive. There was nothing I could have done to avoid that.”
He told police that he saw the Focus “snaking from side to side, completely out of control", so he moved over to the nearside of the road to try to avoid it.
He estimated the car’s speed at between 60mph and 80mph, although the limit there is 40mph.
Mr Saynor told the inquest that the markings indicated that, after going round a left-hand bend, the Focus had slid sideways, colliding with a rocky outcrop before bouncing back into the van.
He said the theoretical top speed for taking the left-hand bend was 59mph, or up to 91mph if a racing line were adopted.
In his statement, Mr Breen said the Focus had been trying to overtake him as he passed the site of the former Hotel 70 Degrees.
“It went like a bat out of hell,” he said.
Another motorist, Paul Whittaker, who was heading towards Old Colwyn, estimated the car’s speed at 60mph, and gave the police dashcam footage of it overtaking on a bend.
Toxicology tests showed that Mr Kelly, who had a car valeting business, had 135 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood – the drink-drive limit being 80 - and had also had some cocaine and amphetamines at some stage.
Mr Deegan, who was driving, was below the drink-drive limit but also had metabolites of cocaine in his blood.
Elizabeth Dudley-Jones, assistant coroner for North Wales East and Central, recorded a conclusion of deaths from a road traffic collision on both men.
“The Ford Focus was being driven at excessive speed,” she said.
