New Zealand mum who killed toddler while driving on meth has sentenced quashed

A pregnant woman who killed her two-year-old daughter while driving under the influence of methamphetamine last year has had her jail term quashed.

Twenty-one-year-old Valencia Marie Skipper was driving a Nissan Primera near Hastings, New Zealand was driving without a licence when she lost control and veered across the highway on to a bank, rolling the vehicle in January 2016.

Her two-year-old daughter Saphire Te Aroha Skipper-Hira was flung from her unbuckled car seat and died from her injuries. It's not clear if the child had unfastened her seatbelt or hadn't been strapped in properly when the collision occurred. Skipper's 11-year-old sister was also a passenger in the car.

The young mum was sentenced to two and half years in prison in April, and disqualified from driving for three years. She was pregnant during the trial and sentencing, and is due to give birth in the coming weeks.

Now, StuffStuff Skipper's lawyer Madeleine Laracy has been successful in her plea to have the sentence overturned in the Court of Appeal and returned to the District Court for re-sentencing. She wants home detention to be an option.

Police reports confirmed Skipper had a low-level of the drug in her blood stream when the crash happened, but a driving impairment did not contribute to the crash. Witnesses at the scene said the incident happened for no apparent reason.

Laracy said the accident could have happened when the Hastings woman turned around to check on her daughter, taking her eyes off the road.

The matter has now been referred to the District Court.