Chrystle Kemp pleads guilty to deadly Shepparton East collision that killed Savannah Kemp | Court

The family of an unborn baby killed in a horror smash that also claimed the life of a 5-year-old girl has begged the Premier to reconsider Victoria’s laws.

Chrystle Olivia Kemp pleaded guilty in the Shepparton County Court to killing Savannah Kemp and Remi Aldridge following a horrific three-way pileup east of Shepparton. Picture: Supplied

The parents of a baby delivered stillborn after a horror collision east of Shepparton that also claimed the life of a 5-year-old girl have pleaded with the Premier to change Victoria’s legal system.

Speaking outside the Shepparton County Court - where driver Chrystle Olivia Kemp, 27, was pleading guilty over the smash - Andrew and Elodie Aldridge slammed a justice system that couldn’t recognise their son Remi as a baby rather than a foetus.

“My son, in the eyes of the law, is basically nothing,” Ms Aldridge, who was also seriously injured in the collision, said.

Despite having both a birth and death certificate, and being recognised by the Transport and Accident Commission, Victorian law does not consider unborn children to be people and therefore charges cannot be laid against an accused over the death of a foetus.

“I held him, our little boy,” Mr Eldridge said of Remi, who was delivered stillborn at 34 weeks.

“He was a child. He was sustainable. But in the eyes of the law, he was a foetus and an injury to my wife.”

The couple put a heartbreaking message to Jacinta Allan as they called for her to change Victoria’s laws to be more in line with NSW and Queensland.

“Are you kissing your kids tonight? Because we’re not,” Mr Aldridge said.

“If NSW can do it, if Queensland can do it, why can’t we?”

The couple said they would “fight for as long as it takes” to get the laws changed so no other family would have to go through what they had.

A spokeswoman for the government said the law was “complex” and “changes could have unintended consequences including for abortion rights in Victoria”.

“We believe we have the balance right under the current laws,” she said, adding they felt for any family affected.

“We know how important it is for women who lose their babies to have them recognised and remembered,” she said.

“That’s why we changed the Crimes Act to make it that any person who drives carelessly, or intentionally, to cause a woman to lose her unborn child, can be punished under Victorian law.”

On October 20 last year, Kemp picked up her niece Savannah from kindergarten before heading down Old Dookie Rd.

It was her first time driving in 10 months after living interstate but having lived there in the area previously, the roads were familiar.

On Boundary Rd, a heavily pregnant Ms Aldridge was driving home from a midwifery appointment in Wangaratta, having been told her baby was healthy inside the womb and could be born anytime.

Savannah Kemp died at the scene of the horrific three-way smash. Picture: Supplied

Nathan Frizzell and Dylan Hoare were heading north along the same road in a white LandCruiser.

Minutes later, Kemp ignored a stop sign at the Boundary Rd intersection, ploughing through at 81km/h and hitting the two other cars.

Savannah — not strapped into her booster seat but instead just sitting in the back seat — died at the scene.

Ms Aldridge was trapped in her Ford Territory for an hour before being flown to The Alfred in a serious condition.

A year on, she’s been booked in for a hip replacement as a result of the collision.

Her son, Remi, was stillborn.

Andrew Aldridge, the husband of Elodie Aldridge, described the crash site at Shepparton East as a “war zone”. Picture: Oscar Jaeger

Mr Frizzell and Mr Hoare were not injured in the collision.

In a harrowing victim impact statement, Ms Aldridge told the court she was still unable to open Remi’s bedroom door, couldn’t watch movies with children in them and struggled to go to the supermarket.

“I feel guilty, guilty of surviving when my son didn’t … I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you Remi, I love you,” she said.

Her husband described the crash site as a “war zone” as he watched SES crews and firefighters attempt to pull his wife from the wreckage.

“No parent should have to hold their dead son … I had to tell (my wife) about Remi, she was screaming at me, telling me to go away,” Mr Aldridge said.

Savannah’s mother Bryana Kemp – who now suffers from depression and has suicidal thoughts – had her victim impact statement read to the court.

She said she wished she could trade places with the five-year-old.

Savannah Kemp with her mum Bryana. Picture: Supplied

“I miss Savannah so much — if I did not have my three sons I would have taken my own life,” the statement read.

Savannah loved the idea of getting married and having children and wearing a white wedding gown, but “instead she was cremated in a white dress”, the statement read.

Her other children had also suffered from the collision, the court heard, with Ms Kemp’s eldest son having “retreated into himself”.

In their statements to the court, they spoke of their anger towards their aunt.

“I don’t want her to be my aunty anymore. She’s torn my whole family apart,” one wrote.

Bryana said she often struggled to have a relationship with Chrystle, and she “disrespected (her) authority as a parent”.

The court heard the sisters had had an argument just days before the tragic collision.

According to Bryana, her sister – and daughter’s killer – had not apologised for the collision.

The court heard Kemp was badly injured in the collision, with the former nurse suffering bone fractures and nerve damage.

Chrystle Kemp lost her nursing licence after the crash.

She had a gait impairment, bladder issues, chronic pain, abdominal and pelvic pain, and was battling post-traumatic stress disorder and recurrent major depressive disorder, the court heard.

Defence lawyer Paul Smallwood argued Kemp had a lower level of moral culpability as she was not on her phone, using drugs, alcohol or speeding.

He said she was suffering from the traumatic grief of losing her niece, and had been banned from nursing after she was charged.

Judge Geoffrey Chettle said the case was a tragic one, referring to the “fragility of life” where “one mistake” could be life-changing.

“She did not see the stop sign, she should have seen the stop sign,” he said.

“How unlucky for two vehicles to strike you simultaneously... Everything went wrong.”

Kemp’s plea was adjourned to November 20, with her bail extended until that date.